As part of this effort, the administration is trying to connect Cuba with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which has been gaining political traction in the United States following Zohran Mamdani’s victory as New York City mayor and other wins.

The campaign also comes amid repeated warnings from U.S. President Donald Trump about communism allegedly threatening the United States again. Trump has also linked Democrats to communism.

That raises the question: why is the Trump administration making this argument, and why now?

What the administration is alleging

Last week, the U.S. State Department released a nearly 100-page report titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism”.

The report argues that Cuba has spent more than half a century influencing and supporting the domestic left in the United States. Among its more striking claims:

• the far-left Weather Underground had direct contact with Cuban officials and Cuban spies in the 1970s, who helped facilitate the group’s bombings in the United States
• delegations of other “American radicals” traveled to Cuba during that decade to learn urban terrorism and guerrilla tactics
• Cuban intelligence today treats infiltrating U.S. universities as a top priority
• leftist activists in the United States and elsewhere routinely make “revolutionary tourism” trips to the island
• the DSA maintains a “fierce, almost religious commitment to the cause of the Cuban regime”

That framing does not hold up under scrutiny. The report builds its case around a small number of real espionage and terrorism cases, then attempts to connect them to more ordinary activity such as joining a Cuban-organized trip, expressing solidarity with Havana, or opposing the U.S. embargo on the island.

This approach echoes a long U.S. tradition of using national security claims to target leftist movements. That history includes the targeting of civil rights and labor organizers during the McCarthy era, as well as Cold War surveillance of anti-war activists.

Also notable is what the report does not mention: six decades of documented U.S. covert action against Cuba, including assassination plots and support for armed exile groups.

The report was released just days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened delegations from dozens of countries in Washington for a conference on “resurgent far-left political terrorism.” At the event, Rubio said the threat of far-left violence “can no longer be denied” and that it was “time to crush this evil forever.”

In May, the White House also released a new counterterrorism strategy that identified “violent left-wing extremists” as one of three terror threats facing the United States, alongside narcoterrorists and Islamist terror groups. It did not mention neo-Nazi or other far-right groups.

Why now?

In that broader context, the State Department report significantly expands the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Cuba.

Over the past few months, Washington has imposed an oil blockade on Cuba, broadened economic sanctions against the island, directly sanctioned President Miguel Díaz-Canel and members of former leader Raúl Castro’s family, and secured a criminal indictment against Castro himself.

That economic pressure has pushed Cuba toward humanitarian collapse. UN experts have condemned it as a serious violation of international law.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, and his officials have not ruled out direct military action if Havana does not comply. Rubio’s report and recent statements now offer an ideological framework that could be used to justify such action.

The timing of the campaign is harder to explain, but two factors appear to be converging.

First, the administration is seeking a foreign policy “victory” after the costly and inconclusive war with Iran.

Second, the November midterm elections are approaching. A hardline stance on Cuba could help Republicans rally their base. It also allows the party to portray the U.S. left as aligned with foreign forces and supporters of “communism.”

The more important question is what may come next. The administration has created a basis for action on several fronts:

• further measures against Havana, including the possibility of a military operation
• expanded actions against U.S. left-wing organizations, including possible targeting of their tax-exempt status or funding
• designation of left-wing groups as terrorist organizations
• increased pressure on European governments to act against their own leftist organizations

The greatest impact of the Trump administration’s actions, however, will likely fall on the Cuban people, who have long been treated as scapegoats and collateral damage by their powerful northern neighbor.

Juan Zahir Naranjo Cáceres, PhD Candidate, Political Science, International Relations and Constitutional Law, University of the Sunshine Coast

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.