Trump Threatens to Bomb U.S. Allies

What this episode is about

The discussion centers around the Trump administration's aggressive military rhetoric towards various countries, particularly the potential for military action against U.S. allies like Mexico and Cuba. Key points include Trump's claims about combating drug cartels in Mexico, the criticism from Mexican leadership regarding U.S. intervention, and the broader implications of U.S. operations linked to Venezuela and its influence on Mexico's political stability.

Key takeaways

• Trump's bombing ambitions have expanded from war-torn countries to cartels, highlighting a radical shift in interventionist policy.
• Claiming 97% drug disruption sounds impressive until you realize it's based on questionable statistics, not military efficacy.
• Bombing cartels may ignite a chaotic cycle of violence in Mexico, proving that 'simple solutions' rarely solve complex problems.
• The Trump administration's strategy: threatening military action while dodging real geopolitical intricacies—good luck managing that chaos!
• Cuba's survival hinges on oil from Venezuela; Trump's economic blockade may push them closer to desperation and instability.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Ben Rhodes (Guest) · 5 min speaking
• Unknown Host (Host) · 7 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Maduro operation, Donald Trump, Claudia Shanebomb, New York Times
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Donald Trump, Cuban economy, Cuban government
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Cuban government, Donald Trump, Cuban economy, Ben Rhodess
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Cuban government, Ben Rhodess, Pod Save the World, Cuban Communist Party

Notable quotes from "Trump Threatens to Bomb U.S. Allies"

• All right. So, tracking all the places that the Trump administration has bombed or is threatening to bomb. It's getting very difficult. So, the my has bombed list includes Venezuela.

  about Donald Trump · at 0:00

• Then money back to Venezuela. so again, but we're going to talk about Cuba in a minute, but Mexico has also been a big supplier of oil to Cuba since the Maduro operation. I…

  about Maduro operation · at 1:36

• Yeah., The, other, regime, change, we're trying right now is Trump's pushing really hard to take down the Cuban government. it's crazy that they're doing all these projects at the same time. Like how can you possibly manage.

  about Cuban government · at 4:10

• Could just cease to operate. and before those cuts, Cuba was experiencing rolling blackouts of up to 20 hours outside of Havana and up to 10 hours at a time per day inside…

  about Cuban economy · at 5:43

• Yes., I, mean,, so, I, obviously, worked, on this, negotiated the normalization relations with Cuba. Cuba's shitty economy because of, the US embargo on Cuba for decades, as well as.

  about Ben Rhodess · at 6:36

• I'd say people have been predicting the imminent collapse of the Cuban government since the Cuban revolution you know and they've figured out ways to survive with next to…

  about Cuban revolution · at 8:22

• It's some, real, cold, war, here., Thank you for watching this excerpt of POD Save the World, the show I do every week with Ben Rhodess where we talk about the biggest stories in national security and.

  about Pod Save the World · at 11:36

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Core topic / referenced decision-maker · 3 mentions · first at 1:11
  The discussion centers on Trump's threats/interest in bombing Mexico and using economic pressure to destabilize Cuba, framing broader U.S. regime-change behavior.
• Ben Rhodess — Person · Co-host / referenced speaker (in excerpt) · 2 mentions · first at 6:25
  Ben provides firsthand context from negotiating U.S.-Cuba normalization and argues the embargo is a primary driver of Cuban hardship.
• Claudia Shanebomb — Person · Referenced foreign leader · 1 mention · first at 1:03
  Presented as Mexico's president opposing U.S. intervention and characterizing oil shipments to Cuba as humanitarian aid; also said Mexico didn't support the Maduro operation.
  Claudia Shanebomb adamantly opposes any US intervention in Mexico. On Monday, she said she reiterated that message during a recent phone call with Donald Trump and also told…
• Cuban doctors — Person · Referenced group / economic lever · 1 mention · first at 6:08
  Their deployment in Venezuela is described as a major revenue source for Cuba; forced return could further decimate the Cuban economy.
  Whatever is going on the political risk and the Cuban economy could be even further decimated if Cuban doctors working in Venezuela are forced to leave and I saw one economist…

Companies & orgs

• Cuban government — Company · Core topic / target of policy · 5 mentions · first at 4:14
  The episode debates U.S. efforts to pressure or collapse the Cuban government and questions the feasibility and morality of such a strategy.
• Cuban Communist Party — Company · Referenced ruling party / target · 1 mention · first at 11:08
  Mentioned as the power center U.S. policy aims to squeeze out, raising questions about what follows a collapse and who governs.
  Great. I want to go to Cuba. Like the idea that we're going to like just try to like squeeze the Cuban Communist Party out of power and then what?

Products & tech

• AI — Product · Referenced competing priority · 1 mention · first at 11:30
  Raised as a major looming issue ('coming online') to argue that focusing on Cuba is misplaced compared to other urgent challenges.
  Use of time and it doesn't, of, all, the, things., We, have an affordability crisis. AI is coming online. The Russians are in Ukraine.

Concepts & topics

• Cuban economy — Concept · Core topic / analytical lens · 2 mentions · first at 5:48
  Cuba's economic fragility is central: oil shortages, blackouts, tourism collapse, and the effects of U.S. sanctions/embargo are discussed as drivers of humanitarian crisis.
• Maduro operation — Concept · Referenced operation / policy action · 2 mentions · first at 1:12
  Used to describe U.S. actions against Venezuela and as a trigger for Mexican concern about being 'next'; also linked to oil supply changes affecting Cuba.
• Putin's Russia — Concept · Analogy / rhetorical comparison · 1 mention · first at 2:22
  Used to characterize Trump's alleged disregard for factual accuracy (e.g., '97%') by comparing it to authoritarian propaganda dynamics.
  Point like this. 97% of all drugs have like he just throws these numbers out and it is like living in Putin's Russia like I don't think 97% of drugs by water have been stopped…

Places & events

• Cuban revolution — Event · Historical reference point · 1 mention · first at 8:25
  Invoked to show how long U.S. policymakers have predicted Cuba's collapse and to frame sanctions as punishment for decades-old history.
• COVID — Event · Contextual cause · 1 mention
  Cited as a key factor crushing Cuba's tourism sector for five years, worsening the economic crisis discussed.
  The tourism sector... has been crushed... by COVID.

Media & podcasts

• Pod Save the World — Media · Primary show / source of excerpt · 1 mention · first at 11:37
  The excerpt is explicitly identified as coming from Pod Save the World, framing the conversation as national security/foreign policy analysis.
• New York Times — Media · Referenced reporting source · 1 mention · first at 1:14
  Provides a quoted Mexican senior official expressing fear that Mexico could be 'next,' reinforcing the escalation narrative.
  Donald Trump and also told him that Mexico did not support the Maduro operation. the New York Times quoted a senior official in the Mexican government as saying the Majoro…
• Pod Save America — Media · Referenced sister show / call-to-action · 1 mention · first at 11:53
  Mentioned in the outro as a recommended subscription to counter right-wing content on YouTube.
  Rest of this, go to the Pods Save the World YouTube channel. Please subscribe and also please subscribe to the Pods Save America here on YouTube. We are trying to counteract…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 All right. So, uh, tracking all the places that the Trump administration has bombed or is threatening to bomb. It's getting very difficult. So, the my my has bombed list includes Venezuela Iran Iraq Syria Nigeria Yemen and Somalia. Let me know if I forgot any. Um, and then the kind of like overtly or implicitly threatening to bomb, invade or topple the government list uh includes Greenland, Cuba, Panama Colombia, Canada, and Mexico. Yeah. So we're going to talk about Mexico for a minute, then we'll get to Cuba later.

0:28 Um, here's Trump talking about Mexico last week on Sean Hannity Show on Fox. We've, knocked, out, 97%, of, the, drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It's very, very sad to watch and see what's happened to that country, but the cartels are running and they're killing 250, 300,000 people in our country every single year. the drugs. It's horrible.

0:58 So,, it, sure, seems, like, he's, uh, talking about bombing Mexico there. It's not the first time either. Um Mexican President Claudia Shanebomb uh adamantly opposes any US intervention in Mexico. On Monday, she said she reiterated that message during a recent phone call with Donald Trump and also told him that Mexico did not support the Maduro operation. Um the New York Times quoted a senior official in the Mexican government as saying the Majoro operation made them worry that quote "We are on the list of who could be next and worse, we have been warned." Um, the administration's uh indictment of Maduro mentioned Mexico 25 times and it claims that the former Venezuelan strong man partnered with drug traffickers including the Sinaloa cartel to transfer cocaine through Mexico to the US and then money back to Venezuela. Um, so again, but we're going to talk about Cuba in a minute, but Mexico has also

1:40 been a big supplier of oil to Cuba since the Maduro operation. I think last week a tanker carrying roughly 90,000 barrels of oil arrived in Havana from Mexico. Um, Shane Bomb says those are uh uh shipments or humanitarian aid, but you know, Trump's not going to like that answer. So, it's just interesting to see the all the ways the Mexican government is pushing back on Trump and all the irritants here and and it just it feels like the odds of a US strike on Mexico just keep going up and up. But I'm wondering like how you're interpreting that now.

2:12 It, does, feel, that, like, the, odds, are going up and up. Uh first of all, I do just want to sometimes feel the need to point like this. 97% of all drugs have like he just throws these numbers out and it is like living in Putin's Russia like I don't think 97% of drugs by water have been stopped because he bombed

2:29 a, few, dozen, boats, you, know, put, that aside he he's been talking about this we

2:35 one, of, the, guides, to, Trump, which, is, you know a lot of what we're doing is trying to understand this guy is there are these things that he wanted to do in the first term that he was like prevented from doing that he's now like that he's in the fantasy camp of his dictatorship he's just doing and we know from first accounts that he wanted to bomb Mexico in the first term and the Pentagon was like that's crazy. and then we're not going to give you the options, you know and he's been talking about it and he keeps talking about it and he keeps ratching it up. And so I think it's quite likely that he bombs Mexico, that he he goes after these cartels. And and look, that's not nearly as simple as he suggests either because these cartels are deeply embedded in Mexican, you know, society. They're they they're complex organizations. It's not like you can like take out the leader and it collapses. We've seen leaders get

3:27 arrested and basically nothing changes. They're also like very armed and violent and can cause problems in Mexico or in even other countries in Latin America. Um so I I don't think it's as simple as you know, there's a possibility that maybe he just bombs a couple cartels and it's like goes on TV and says he stopped all drugs coming to the United States because he's Trump and he might do that. But I worry about like a war on terror starting where you're bombing the cartels and nothing's changing and so you just keep bombing and suddenly you look up and we've like we're just bombing Mexico regularly and Mexico is starting to you know suffer the political instability that comes with that cartel reprisal violence because the cartels might lash out against the Mexican government instead of against the United States and then you could get a really ugly situation.

4:10 Yeah., The, other, regime, change, we're trying right now is Trump's pushing really hard to take down the Cuban government. Um it's crazy that they're doing all these projects at the same time. Like how can you possibly manage all

4:20 and, there's, not, that, many, of, them., It's like it's, like, yeah, it's, like, six, people making decisions and like Marco Rubio is like runs all this So um Trump has seems seemingly has ruled out military action in Cuba so far just he wants to do it through economic pressure. Um on Sunday he posted the following message. Quote Cuba lived for many years on large amounts of oil and money from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided security services for the last uh two Venezuelan dictators, but not anymore. Most of those Cubans are dead from last week's USA attack, and Venezuela doesn't need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years. Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the world by far.

4:57 To protect them, and protect them, we will. There will be no more oil or money going to Cuba. Zero. I strongly suggest that they make a deal before it is too late. Thank you for your attention this matter, President Trump. Um, so, so an energy analyst quoted in the Miami Herald said that Venezuela exported an average of 30,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba in 2025. That was about half of what they needed. Um, Cuba also gets oil from Mexico, as I just mentioned, and also Russia, but it seems unlikely that those countries are willing or able to fill the gap uh left by Venezuela going down to zero. Um, so the reduction in in oil, it's going to impact everything.

5:33 It's going to impact Cuba's ability to generate electricity, distribute drinking water. Uh farmers won't be able to run tractors, they won't be able to grow food. The transportation sector could just cease to operate. Um and before those cuts, Cuba was experiencing rolling blackouts of up to 20 hours outside of Havana and up to 10 hours at a time per day inside Havana. and the the tourism sector which was a huge source of revenue has been crushed uh for the last five years by COVID and then hurricanes and now you know whatever is going on the the political risk um and the Cuban economy could be even further decimated if Cuban doctors working in Venezuela are forced to leave um and I saw one economist say that the impact of Cuba losing its revenue from like the medical exchange of doctors with Venezuela could be worse than the fall of the Soviet Union when they lost those subsidies which seems massive. So

6:25 um, Ben, you're seeing a lot of Republicans, again, Lindsey Graham, uh kind of licking his chops and and predicting an imminent collapse of the Cuban government. Do you think they're right? What are you watching for?

6:36 Yes., I, mean,, so, I, obviously, worked, on this, negotiated the normalization relations with Cuba. Um, Cuba's shitty economy because of, you know, the US embargo on Cuba for decades, as well as kind of a relatively incompetent communist government. you know, it was kind of hanging on by a thread and beginning to benefit a bit from the opening in the Obama years, particularly in the tourism sector. Our theory again was if you open things up, um they'll change because there'll be just be this overwhelming, you know, it's 90 miles from Florida, like this overwhelming influx of Americans and and American uh investment that that they could transform the country. Um, now Trump undid, you know, put all the sanctions back in place. Joe Biden uh did nothing.

7:25 He basically carried forward Donald Trump's policy. So even before this, I say that because even before this, the Cuban economy was acutely um like the special period quote unquote special period was uh what Cubans refer to the '90s as after the Soviets would do their subsidies when they were on like the nice edge of poverty and collapse and they made it through. Everybody I talk to who goes to Cuba and I a lot of people who do is say it's worse than it's ever been before the Venezuelan thing. Yeah.

7:54 And, what, just, so, Americans, know, because it's our policy that does that is most responsible is the embargo. Um and I believe that I don't you know their mismanagement sure but if you can't import anything or get any investment it doesn't matter how well you manage the economy. um people are malnourished like people like you know like they can't deal with the hurricanes like people are dying because of our sanctions already this will make it much worse there um and I don't know like on the one hand I'd say people have been predicting the imminent collapse of the Cuban government since the Cuban revolution you know uh and they've figured out ways to survive with next to nothing and maybe they'll get an extra plus up in the Mexican oil and and some Brazilian oil and just kind of keep things banded bandated together. Um, but again, it's it's it's like a mini Iran in the sense that like what does it even mean for the

8:47 regime to collapse? Like um if we don't invade militarily, I guess it means that like the protest movement starts and they, you know, kill the leaders and then, what?, Well,, then, you're, going to have to intervene because this is like a completely destitute island 90 miles from Florida with a lot of people that are not going to want to relinquish their power at all because if they do, they think they're going to get killed. You got a bunch of exiles in Miami who think they're going to go back there and run the place. How are they going to get in there and run the place if the army is like the core of the regime? Like this? None of this stuff is as simple as it looks. And the only thing I'd say about Cuba is that they don't even allege that there's a national security threat.

9:29 No., Like, with, Venezuela,, they, would, at least say like, you know, they're importing drugs. You know

9:34 fentanyl, is, a, WMD, now. Yeah,, fentanyl, is, a, WMD., Like, Cuba, is not does pose Cuba does not pose any threat. Even if you hate the Cuban regime and it definitely treats and represses its people. There's no threat to the United States.

9:50 This, is, the, thing, I, did, want, to, talk about. Like I'm not a fan of the Cuban government. It is a one party rule. There's rampant, you know, systemic political repression and and detentions and activists and journalists get thrown in prison and some people get tortured and there's restrictions on speech and the media. There's there's evidence of, you know political prisoners, maybe some coercive labor practices. You could say every one of those things about our closest allies in the Gulf.

10:13 You, could, say, that, bin, gets, welcomed into the Oval Office 50, countries fedded, with, state, dinners, and, Cuba, gets crippling sanctions that primarily punish the Cuban people. Most of all it's just like the imbalance of policy to the problem is so crazy

10:27 entirely., I, mean,, I, used, to, go, down there and like look, if you're running the government, you you're eating fine you know? And yeah, maybe you're like you're not living as lavishly as like a Gulf autocrat, obviously, but like the people that are punished by those sanctions are the very Cuban people that people like Marco Rubio constantly say that they're trying to help. And all you've done is made those lives miserable and destitute and and and were punishing people for something that happened like 60 years ago or 70 years ago. I didn't lost track, right? And if you ask the American pe when we did the Cub opening, it was like the highest polling thing in our foreign policy.

11:04 Like 80% of people are like, "That's great. I want to go to Cuba." Like the idea that we're going to like just try to like squeeze the Cuban Communist Party out of power and and then what? and then like install some Marco Rubio approved exile regime that's gonna have to fight probably to like restore order and like like this is insane.

11:25 Yeah., It, just, does, not, seem, like, a, good use of time and it doesn't, like, of, all, the, things., We, have an affordability crisis. AI is coming online. The Russians are in Ukraine. Like the what and we're focused on the Cuban government.

11:36 It's some, real, cold, war, here., Thank you for watching this excerpt of POD Save the World, the show I do every week with Ben Rhodess where we talk about the biggest stories in national security and foreign policy and there have been a lot of them uh out there this week, this year, this lifetime. Uh to watch the rest of this, go to the Pods Save the World YouTube channel. Please subscribe and also please subscribe to the Pods Save America here on YouTube. We are trying to counteract all the right-wing crap that is on YouTube and when you subscribe to Podsave America, it really helps us get good information to people in the YouTube algorithm. So, please do it. It's free. Thank you.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump Threatens to Bomb U.S. Allies"?

Ben Rhodes (Guest), Unknown Host (Host).

What is "Trump Threatens to Bomb U.S. Allies" about?

The discussion centers around the Trump administration's aggressive military rhetoric towards various countries, particularly the potential for military action against U.S. allies like Mexico and Cuba. Key points include Trump's claims about combating drug cartels in Mexico, the criticism from Mexican leadership regarding U.S. intervention, and the broader implications of U.S. operations linked…

What is mentioned in this Pod Save America episode?

15 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Cuban government, Cuban economy, Ben Rhodess, Pod Save the World, Maduro operation. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump Threatens to Bomb U.S. Allies"?

The episode runs 12 min; the transcript is about 2,463 words in 25 timestamped sections.

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