Trump Rejects Sheinbaum's Claim That Cutting Oil Shipments To Cuba Will Cause a Humanitarian Crisis: 'They'll Make a Deal'

President Donald Trump rejected a claim from his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum, about whether Cuba would face a "humanitarian crisis" if it stopped receiving oil from the country.

Speaking to press aboard the Air Force One, Trump said the situation "doesn't have to be a humanitarian crisis."

"I think they'll probably come to us and want to make a deal. So Cuba will be free again. They'll come to us and make a deal. Cuba really has a problem. I know a lot of people from Cuba. We have a lot of people in the U.S. right now who would like to go back to Cuba. We'd like to work that out," Trump added.

The remark comes in the aftermath of an executive order from Trump imposing tariffs on goods from countries selling or providing oil to the beleaguered Caribbean country. It was largely seen as aimed at Mexico, one of its last lifelines in terms of oil shipments.

Sheinbaum said this week that her administration intends to continue sending oil to the country on humanitarian grounds, but the tariffs could deter her from moving forward with the policy.

The Havana regime slammed the move, calling it a "brutal act of aggression." In a social media publication, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Havana "condemns in the strongest terms the U.S.'s new escalation."

"Now it is seeking to impose a total blockade to our country's fuel supplies," Rodriguez added. "The U.S. is also resorting to blackmail and coercion to try to get other countries to join its universally condemned blockade of Cuba and, should they refuse, are threatened with arbitrary and abusive tariffs that violate all free trade rules," he added.

A report from the Financial Times this week claimed that the country has less than a month worth of oil at current levels of demand and domestic production.

Citing data company Kpler, the outlet noted that the country has oil to last 15 to 20 days unless deliveries resume. "They have a major crisis on their hands" Jorge Piñon, an oil expert at the University of Texas told the outlet.

The country has only received less than 85,000 barrels this year, according to the FT. All came from a shipment on January 9, Kpler detailed. The figure adds to an estimated 460,000 barrels held in inventories at the beginning of the year.

Cuba relied on oil from Venezuela and Mexico, but shipments from the former stopped following the capture of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month, and the latter is seeing an impact as well.

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• Claudia Sheinbaum Says Mexico Is In Touch With U.S. Over Threat Of Tariffs On Countries Supplying Oil To Cuba

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