Donald Trump's Next Target Is Cuba? Ex-White House Official Warns POTUS Will Seize Island

Donald Trump is poised to target Cuba, escalate covert operations in Latin America and undermine key Western alliances in the coming months, former White House official Miles Taylor has warned in a sharply worded assessment of the US president's next moves published in the UK's i newspaper this week.

Taylor is not a casual commentator. He served as chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security during Donald Trump's first term, before leaving his post in 2019 and emerging as one of the most prominent Republican critics of the president.

His latest intervention sets out what he claims are Trump's 'next four moves' on the world stage, casting the White House as a source of volatility that US allies would be unwise to ignore.

Cuba in the Crosshairs as Trump's 'Next Target'

In Taylor's telling, Cuba now sits uncomfortably on Donald Trump's to‑do list. 'Cuba is already on his radar, and if Trump doesn't attempt to seize the island this year, he almost certainly will project power there after the midterms,' he wrote, arguing that Havana could become the focal point of a fresh bout of sabre‑rattling in the region.

Nothing in Taylor's piece suggests there is confirmed planning for a military move against Cuba. His language is couched in prediction and interpretation rather than disclosed operational detail. On that basis, any talk of Trump 'seizing' the island remains speculative and should be treated with caution.

Even so, the direction of travel he sketches is clear. 'Latin America will rise on the agenda. Venezuela was the beginning, not the end. Mexico and other Central American immigration waypoints are in the crosshairs,' he claimed, adding that 'Trump has reportedly already ramped up CIA activity in the region. There's no telling how far he might go.'

Taylor does not present documentary evidence for those intelligence claims in the piece, and the CIA has not publicly confirmed any such increase. His warning, though, is that a president who thrives on confrontation could reach for covert pressure and theatrical shows of force in a region long sensitive to US interference.

Trump, NATO and Allies 'Sold Out'

The Cuba prediction is only one strand of Taylor's wider argument that Donald Trump is prepared to 'sell out allies,' fracture long‑standing alliances and interfere in other countries' domestic politics if it suits his interests.

On Ukraine, Taylor contends that the White House may be willing to sacrifice Kyiv's 'hard-fought interests to Russia.' He offers no timetable or explicit scenario, but the implication is that support for Ukraine could be treated as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Moscow.

China features in his critique as well. 'Anticipate he will cut a deal to turn the other way to China's efforts to take over Taiwan, if he hasn't secretly done so already,' Taylor wrote.

That assertion is highly speculative, there is no public indication of a secret arrangement, and Taylor does not provide corroborating detail. He is, in effect, inviting readers to imagine the kind of trade-offs he believes this White House might entertain.

The former official reserves some of his strongest language for NATO. He has previously argued that Trump would follow through on threats to leave the alliance, and he repeats that view in the i piece.

'The withdrawals will be sudden and shocking,' he warned. 'Trump will either pull the US out of Nato or let it wither in favour of a Trump-centred alternative. I suspect he might announce something modelled on his vainglorious Board of Peace.'

Again, these are predictions, not policy statements. There has been no formal notice of US withdrawal from NATO, and most of the alliance's other members have continued to insist publicly that transatlantic ties remain vital. Taylor's point, however, is that allies should not assume that institutional inertia will protect them if Trump decides to act.

He also suggests the president is ready to 'interfere in the internal affairs of US allies in a bid to install more Maga-friendly counterparts in foreign capitals.'

Here he points explicitly to Britain, highlighting Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage as ideological fellow travellers, particularly on immigration. The allegation is that Trump would like to see stricter immigration limits, mirroring positions championed by the party in the UK.

Cuba Warning Lands as Trump Trumpets 'Perfect' Health

Taylor's warning about Trump's next target and broader ambitions arrives at a moment when the president is trying to project vigour and normality at home.

Trump, already the oldest person to hold the presidency, is due to turn 80 within days. After a visit to the Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Virginia for what he described as a routine check, he used his Truth Social platform to insist that his six‑month physical had gone 'perfectly.'

'Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff!' he posted.

There was no immediate response from the White House or the Trump campaign to Miles Taylor's specific claims about Cuba, NATO or alleged deals with Russia and China. No official Cuban, Russian, Chinese or NATO statements were cited in the i article to corroborate or contest his analysis, and the picture he paints is necessarily one‑sided.

That does not mean it can be dismissed out of hand. Taylor was in the room for many of the previous administration's most contentious debates, and his account carries the weight of someone who has watched Trump's decision‑making at close quarters.

At the same time, he has built a post‑government career on warning about the dangers he believes Trump poses, and critics would argue he has every incentive to cast the president's intentions in the darkest possible colours.

For now, his suggestion that Donald Trump's next target could be Cuba, that Latin America is 'rising on the agenda,' and that NATO's future cannot be taken for granted, remains just that, a warning from a former insider about a leader he believes is willing to go much further than many allies still want to contemplate.