Trump then endorsed the newly compliant Delcy Rodriguez to run Venezuela, took control of the country's oil business, and crucially, set up an oil blockade of Cuba.
In doing so, he indicated that Cuba was now on his list of countries he intends to "deal with".
Iran, already on that list, has recently been at the centre of the president's attention, but all the indicators are that Cuba is most certainly "next".
We know this because Trump has said so.
In reality, the oil blockade is already bringing Cuba to its knees.
Venezuela provided cheap fuel to Cuba, and it was augmented by supplies from Mexico.
These vital lifelines have both stopped on Trump's orders, though Mexico maintains it was a "sovereign decision".
A single Russian oil tanker has reached Cuba this year, but that is for now, all the oil it has received.
Cuba has failed to diversify its power supplies - there's little solar power, little wind power, and very little gas - making it particularly reliant on oil to the point that now it can barely function.
I've recently been inside Cuba, and the effects of the blockade are devastating and immediately obvious.
This oil blockade is an economic war every bit as destructive as bombs and bullets.
There are continuous power blackouts across the country, and now also in the capital Havana, which was traditionally spared this type of treatment.
Government food stores and bakeries selling heavily subsidised household essentials are now regularly closed or virtually empty.
Many Cubans relied on these stores to buy food to survive - and not having this vital supply means there is a growing crisis, with people going hungry.
Petrol stations are largely closed and empty, pharmacies are bare, and people are queuing to get money from cash machines that are often drained and always come with a strict withdrawal limit.
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The tourism industry that once brought billions of dollars of hard currency to Cuba has almost come to a standstill.
Trump's threats, the blackouts, and a lack of aviation fuel have scared tourists away, particularly in Havana.
The traditional safety nets in Cuba, like its healthcare system, have broken. Hospitals are running on generators with very little supplies.
Charities are doing their best to pick up the slack with food handouts for the elderly and the homeless - they say they're now also handing out food to children and trying to help with education.
But they're struggling to find the resources, struggling to keep up with the demand and the need.
Rubbish is piled up on the streets all over the capital, and that's mainly because there's no fuel for the bin trucks to collect it.
I watched as people picked through the rotting food and vegetables in the rubbish, looking for something to eat - sometimes eating it where they stood. In alleyways nearby we filmed as people slept rough.
Countless people I spoke to told me that even though Cuba is a poor country, seeing this type of thing was not common here in the past - this was not how it used to be.
But these types of images have now become a constant visual reminder of how every facet of life in this Caribbean country is being affected by the blockade and Donald Trump's threats.
The once magnificent buildings that marked Havana out as a special place in the region are crumbling, even completely falling apart in places. People still live in these monuments to Cuba's past; they're clinging to a way of life that is disappearing.
A charity director I spoke to, who is also a tour guide mainly for Italian visitors, explained it to me this way: when her clients see Havana's disintegrating buildings, they ask her when the war was that brought this destruction about - there hasn't been a war, she has to explain.
Observers, neutral or otherwise, agree that people can't go on living like this and that Cuba needs help.
So far, Trump and his advisers have shown little regard for the fate of the Cuban population.
His promise that Cuba is next means nothing to the average person, because they don't know what next means, and here many doubt that the president or anyone in the White House knows what next means either, or if there is even a plan for a future in Cuba.
Oisin McGuinness, 21, and Nathan Dunn, 19, both from Watford, and a 16-year-old boy from north London were all charged with arson with intent to endanger life. All three are British nationals.
McGuinness was also charged with dangerous driving. The trio are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.
The Metropolitan Police said a lit container was thrown at a premises - understood to be the offices of Volant Media, the parent company of Persian news channel Iran International - in Park Royal at around 8.30pm on Wednesday.
The container landed in a car park, where the fire went out.
The three suspects fled in a black SUV, with a police armed response unit giving chase after the driver failed to stop.
The SUV later crashed in Ballards Lane, close to the junction with Woodberry Gardens, N12.
McGuinness, Dunn and the 16-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of arson endangering life at the time before being charged on Friday.
Some nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution, but the attempted arson did not cause any injuries or damage.
The attack is not currently linked to recent arson incidents targeting a synagogue in Finchley and ambulances in Golders Green.
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However, the Met said it was aware of claims of responsibility for the attempted arson attacks by the Iran-linked Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.
The group, which has claimed other attacks across Europe since the war in Iran began, posted videos on Wednesday on Telegram about the two incidents, according to terror group monitor Site Intelligence.
The aircraft was flying between palm oil plantations when it crashed in Borneo, an island shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
The Airbus H130, owned by PT Matthew Air Nusantara, lost contact on Thursday, five minutes after it took off from Melawi district in the island's interior en-route to Kubu Raya district on its west coast.
Two crew members and six passengers were on board, but none survived.
Searchers later discovered the wreckage in the dense forests of Sekadau district, West Kalimantan province, and recovered the bodies of the dead.
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Indonesia has been plagued by air accidents in recent years.
In 2018, a passenger jet crashed into the sea, killing all 189 on board.
Three years later, 62 people were killed when a Boeing 737-500 jet crashed into the Java Sea. There were no survivors.
All above-ground work on the US president's $400m (£296m) pet project must pause after district judge Richard Leon's ruling on Thursday.
But below-ground work can continue on a bunker and other "national security facilities" at the site, where the now-demolished East Wing of the White House once stood.
It means builders are free to proceed with constructing any excavations, bunkers, military installations, and medical facilities below the planned ballroom.
Mr Trump has since taken to social media to express his dismay at the decision of the "Trump hating" judge.
He said Judge Leon "has gone out of his way to undermine National Security, and to make sure that this Great Gift to America gets delayed, or doesn't get built".
Government lawyers argued that the project includes critical security features to guard against a range of possible threats, including drones, ballistic missiles, and biohazards.
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But the judge disagreed, writing: "Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated.
"That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!"
The Trump administration said it will take the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued to challenge the project in December, said in a statement that it was pleased with the court's ruling.
If it is completed, Mr Trump's plan to build a 90,000sq ft ballroom for up to 999 people will mark the biggest structural change to the White House in more than 70 years.
The judge's ruling marks the latest development in the legal fight over the project.
Earlier this month Judge Leon barred construction of the ballroom without congressional approval.
But days later the plans were approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, the agency responsible for approving construction on federal property in Washington DC.
Mr Trump says the project is funded by private donations, although public money is paying for the bunker construction and security upgrades.
The 21-year-old musician had been under investigation by a grand jury after the remains of Celeste Rivas Hernandez were found in a car registered to him in September.
Los Angeles police said the Houston-born singer - whose legal name is David Anthony Burke - was being held without bail on suspicion of murder.
The decomposed remains of Ms Hernandez were discovered in a Tesla registered to D4vd on 8 September - the day after she would have turned 15 - when police were called to a Hollywood tow yard because of reports of a foul smell coming from the vehicle.
The vehicle had been towed from the Hollywood Hills, where it appeared to have been abandoned.
Inside the car, investigators found a cadaver bag containing a head and torso, and a second bag containing dismembered body parts, according to court documents, although the cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
Ms Hernandez, who was identified after forensic examinations, had been reported missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore - about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles - since 2024.
Court documents show authorities had given her age as 14 when she was killed.
In a statement, D4vd's lawyers vowed to "vigorously defend" his innocence, adding: "Let us be clear - the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death."
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D4vd had been on tour when the body was discovered, and a spokesperson for the artist said at the time he was "fully cooperating with the authorities".
The singer, who went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit Romantic Homicide, subsequently cancelled his world tour.