The newspaper USA Today reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous “sources familiar,” that the Pentagon was “quietly ramping up” a plan to attack Cuba — a report that followed similar rumors on Substack.

USA Today offered few details about what the alleged “possible” military engagement was or would look like, not referring to it as an invasion or attack but merely an “operation.” An expert quoted in the USA Today article itself dismissed the rumors as “a lot of signaling” with minimal material evidence that any such operation was imminent. The report does follow months of President Donald Trump telling reporters that he was contemplating action to weaken and ultimately remove the Cuban Communist Party from power after 67 years, however, toying publicly with the idea of a “friendly takeover” of the impoverished island nation.

Cuba suffered a communist coup d’etat in 1959 that imposed the tyranny of the currently ruling Castro dynasty. It is currently run by 94-year-old mass murderer Raúl Castro, who has positioned his children and those of elder brother Fidel in positions of power throughout the Communist Party infrastructure. Castro appointed Miguel Díaz-Canel to be the “president” of the country — a symbolic position in communist dictatorships that serves as a lightning rod for public outrage, shielding the Castros.

While the Castro dictatorship has never been popular in Cuba, public outrage has escalated dramatically in the past decade and continues to climb. The independent monitor group Cubalex revealed on Thursday that it had documented about seven protests a day in Cuba throughout March, a record high since the eruption of protests on July 11, 2021.

In this context, USA Today revealed that its sources believed that “military planning for a possible Pentagon-led operation in Cuba is quietly ramping up.” The report suggested that the Pentagon is preparing not to be caught flat-footed in the event that President Trump, following potentially successful negotiations to end Operation Epic Fury in Iran, could abruptly call on the armed forces to target Cuba.

“In a statement to USA TODAY the Pentagon said it plans for a range of contingencies and remains prepared to execute the president’s orders as directed,” USA Today added.

The newspaper noted that its sources shared the alleged information after a publication on a Substack website called “Zeteo” claimed similarly.

The independent outlet Cubanet observed on Thursday that any plans to invade Cuba, if that is what USA Today is claiming, contradict public comments by Southern Command chief Gen. Francis Donovan on March 19, who told the Senate that the Pentagon was not, in fact, “rehearsing an invasion” or “actively” preparing to attack Cuba. President Trump has repeatedly indicated that he wanted to take action to liberate Cuba from its oppressors, however, and multiple reports have suggested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in communication with senior Castro dynasty leaders.

“Cuba is a failing nation, and we’re going to do this, and we may stop by Cuba after we’re finished with this,” Trump said on Monday, referring to the conflict in Iran. “Cuba is a nation that was… horribly run for many years.”

Similarly, in February, days before invading Iran, Trump claimed the Communist Party was “talking” with the White House.

On Tuesday, the Washington, DC, website Axios reported that the Trump administration had shared information with Congress accusing Cuba of aiding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These accusations, later documented by Ukrainian intelligence, have been circulating since 2023, but Axios suggested that raising the issue now may help justify action against the communist regime.

“The Cuban regime has failed to protect its citizens from being used as pawns in the Russia-Ukraine war,” a State Department spokesperson told Axios in response to the report.

Axios claimed that the Trump administration is accusing Cuba of sending 5,000 fighters to help Russia’s invasion. The Ukrainian government suggested last year that the true number of Cubans fighting for Russia in the conflict is as high as 20,000.

An American military operation would be highly popular with Cuban-Americans, a poll published by the Miami Herald on Thursday suggested. The poll found that 79 percent of Cuban Americans in Florida support American military action against the Communist Party. The poll was published in anticipation of the anniversary on Friday of the 1961 Bay of Pigs engagement, in which Cubans armed and trained in the United States attempted to liberate Cuba from communism, but were betrayed by Democrat President John F. Kennedy, who lied to them about American support and abandoned them to be massacred by the communists.

The attack was prepared by the 2506 Brigade, whose veterans remain politically active and maintain a historical museum and archive in Florida. The Bay of Pigs Veterans Association offered President Trump its first-ever endorsement in a presidential race in 2016 in recognition of his decades of support for the Cuban anti-communist cause.

The official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, Granma, published a series of propaganda pieces this week in anticipation of the anniversary. At an event to mark the alleged “victory” against the United States, a senior member of the Communist Party’s “central committee” urged Cubans to adopt the lessons of the Bay of Pigs “not as a nostalgia exercise, but as a strategic necessity,” given the current political climate.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.