Trump Administration Said to Tell Cuba That Its President Has to Go

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Trump Administration Said to Tell Cuba That Its President Has to Go
The United States has told Cuba that for meaningful progress to be made in negotiations, President Miguel Díaz-Canel must step down, said people familiar with the talks.
By Frances Robles, Edward Wong and Annie Correal
March 16, 2026

As U.S. and Cuban officials negotiate over the future of the Communist-ruled and economically besieged Caribbean island, the Trump administration is seeking to push President Miguel Díaz-Canel from power, according to four people familiar with the talks.

The move would topple a key figurehead while keeping in place the repressive Communist government that has ruled Cuba for more than 65 years. The Americans have signaled to Cuban negotiators that the president must go, but are leaving the next steps up to the Cubans, the people said.

The United States so far is not pushing for any action against Castro family members, who remain the country’s top power brokers, two of the people said. That is consistent with the general desire of Mr. Trump and his aides to force regime compliance rather than regime change in their foreign policy.

In the view of some Trump administration officials, removing Cuba’s head of state would allow structural economic changes in the country that Mr. Díaz-Canel, whom the officials consider a hard-liner, is unlikely to support, one of the people said.

If the Cubans agree, it would result in the first major political shake-up arising from talks between the two countries since those began a few months ago.

The ouster of the top official in Cuba’s leadership would give President Trump a symbolic win that would allow him to tell the American public that he had brought down the leader of a leftist government long opposed to the United States, as he did in Venezuela, one of the people said.

The move, though intended to show the Cuban exile community and other Americans that the Trump administration seeks political as well as economic change, would likely disappoint many conservative Cuban exiles in the United States, who want to see wholesale political transformation in Cuba. Cuban American lawmakers in Congress and politicians in Florida could also demand more action from Mr. Trump.

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