Trump and Rubio allies are vying for control of Cuba’s assets if regime falls

Marco Rubio and Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland, on 31 July 2026. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenMarco Rubio and Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland, on 31 July 2026. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty ImagesTrump administrationTrump and Rubio allies are vying for control of Cuba’s assets if regime fallsWashington and Florida insiders are exploring lucrative deals for a post-communist Cuba crushed by ever-increasing US sanctions

Spanish hotel chains. A Canadian mining firm. European shipping giants. Visa and Mastercard. Scores of foreign companies have been driven out of Cuba this summer over fear of being hit with potent, new secondary sanctions. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, told Axios last month there are “no escape valves” from his unprecedented pressure campaign against the island.

But not everybody is losing out. A growing cast of Washington and Florida insiders – from billionaire Trump cronies and Rubio-linked lobbyists to Cuban exiles – are jockeying for control of the communist-ruled island-nation’s key assets, charging top dollar to help clients navigate the ever-expanding web of sanctions, and positioning themselves for lucrative business opportunities in the case of regime collapse.

Since an executive order signed by Donald Trump on 1 May drove Canada’s Sherritt International from its nickel and cobalt mining joint venture with the Cuban state, two rival US bids to buy out its stake have been presented to US authorities.

Ray Washburne, the vice-chair of Trump’s 2016 Victory Committee who organized last week’s Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, is clashing with Albert Huddleston, another Texas oil tycoon with close ties to the White House. Both are hoping to swoop in, despite nine-figure claims on Sherritt’s Cuba holdings by Citigroup and Office Depot – Fortune 500 corporations. Washburne did not respond to the Guardian and the consortium group including Huddleston declined to comment.

View image in fullscreenRay Washburne, co-chair of the host committee, during an interview ahead of the first day of the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. Washburne said President Donald Trump and the GOP will have no problems generating enthusiasm at the party's midterm event by stressing the strength of the economy. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesA similar approach is being pursued by Australia’s Antilles Gold Ltd, which after being blacklisted over its Cuba operations in June received the green light from the Trump administration to negotiate the transfer of its stake in a Cuban copper-gold mine to the New York-based, multibillion-dollar investment fund, Global Emerging Markets.

“If I had done during the Biden administration what Trump’s friends have done now, I’d have been put in jail,” said a person with several decades of experience in Cuba policy who requested anonymity.

Sources tell the Guardian that several Trump Organization executives who had previously traveled to the island to explore real estate deals and who even registered the Trump trademark there in 2008 have in recent months returned to Cuba under the aegis of Dominari Holdings for meetings. The executives are said to have met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of former Cuban president Raúl Castro, dubbed “the Crab”, to explore opportunities amid the departure of Spanish hotel giants Meliá and Iberostar, which had been operating on the island since the 1990s.

View image in fullscreenCuba's Colonel Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, grandson of Raul Castro, attends the funeral of the 32 Cuban soldiers killed during the US incursion in Venezuela at Colon cemetery in Havana on January 16, 2026. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has held secret talks with a scion of Cuba's communist Castro leadership as he intensifies pressure on the island, a report said. Axios, quoting unnamed sources, said Rubio has been speaking with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez, the grandson of former leader Raul Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel Castro. Photograph: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty ImagesNeither Antilles nor Dominari returned calls for comment.

But American investors aren’t the only ones sensing opportunity in Rubio’s effort to coerce the sanctions-battered country of his parents’ birth into becoming economically dependent on the US.

Cubans have been living under an effective fuel blockade since January 2026: the Trump administration cut oil shipments to the island from the island’s main ally after abducting Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president; it then nixed oil deliveries from Mexico by threatening tariffs on any country sending petroleum to the island.

Treasury department-authorised oil exports from Florida and Texas to the island’s private sector, however – all but non-existent last year – have shot up to over $160m so far this year.