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  "path": "/post/207945/trump-team-nyt-report-cuba-president",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-18T20:13:12.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republicans",
    "Republican Party",
    "Donald Trump",
    "Marco Rubio",
    "Department of State",
    "Cuba",
    "United States",
    "Foreign Policy",
    "story",
    "on X",
    "saying",
    "jumped",
    "friendly takeover",
    "told CNN",
    "regime change"
  ],
  "textContent": "The Trump administration is spiraling over a _New York Times_ story that says it is pushing Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to step down as a requirement for negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba to move forward.\n\nThe _Times_ reported Monday, citing four anonymous sources, that U.S. negotiators want economic hard-liner Díaz-Canel to go in order to open up the country’s economy. The report has infuriated Trump administration officials, who are disputing the reporting.\n\nSecretary of State Marco Rubio, who is personally handling Cuba, said Tuesday night on X, “The reason so many in US media keep putting out fake stories like this one is because they continue to rely on charlatans & liars claiming to be in the know as their sources.”\n\nCharlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the newspaper, responded to Rubio Wednesday morning, saying that the _Times_ reached out to the State Department “well before publication and received no disagreement with the information we were bringing to light.”\n\n“Neither you nor anyone else has presented a factual dispute to the reporting,” Stadtlander stated. “Our reporting is real, and accurate.”\n\nHours later, White House communications director Steven Cheung jumped in and insulted the _Times_ on X, saying, “The only people who are privy to Cuba are President Trump and Marco Rubio. Your lazy reporters relied on uninformed sources who know nothing about what’s going on.”\n\nWhat Rubio and Cheung are mad about is unclear. Trump told reporters last month that he thinks that there could be a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, and, unprompted, told CNN just a week later that “Cuba is going to fall pretty soon.” Maybe Rubio and Cheung, amid the administration’s various regime change plots, are mad that the _Times_ got inside information that they didn’t want revealed to the public.",
  "title": "Trump Team Spirals Over Bombshell Report Exposing Cuba Plans"
}