Trump administration to cut off Cuba's oil supplies

The administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump threatened tariffs on 29 January on imports of any country selling oil to Cuba, in a move likely designed to hasten the demise of the island's communist regime. Trump signed an executive order to that effect, though he told reporters in Washington D.C. he was not trying to "choke off" Cuba and its rundown economy, AP reported. Cuba, an ally of all the United States' villain states including Islamic Iran and Russia, was no longer receiving oil aid from Venezuela following U.S. intervention there in early January, while another supplier, Mexico run by a socialist president, may also have to curb shipments sent to Cuba as a lifeline. Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said on 27 January that her country sent oil for humanitarian reasons, though stopping this was a decision for the state oil firm Pemex, CNN reported. On 29 January, the United States declared Cuba to be "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to its national security.