Lindsey Graham issues most explicit threat yet: 'I'd be looking for a new place to live'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), among the most hawkish members of Congress, issued an ominous threat Sunday to Cuba in a manner strikingly similar to threats made to Venezuela just weeks before the U.S. attack and takeover of the South American nation.

President Donald Trump issued his own ominous threat to Cuba Sunday morning in a social media post, demanding that the Caribbean nation “make a deal” favorable to the United States – and soon – before it’s “too late.” Graham excitedly shared Trump’s post just moments later, while also issuing his own warning to Cuba.

“My advice to the commies running Cuba and oppressing its people: Call [Venezuelan President Nicholas] Maduro and ask him what to do…If you can get through, that is,” Graham wrote Sunday in a social media post on X. “If I were you, I’d be looking for a new place to live.”

Graham’s warning is strikingly similar to the warning Trump issued Maduro before U.S. forces kidnapped and extradited him to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges, where he urged Maduro to flee the country in late November, about one month before the U.S. attack.

In mid-December, Trump also declared Maduro’s “days are numbered,” a foreshadowing of the unprecedented attack that took place about two weeks later. Graham himself also issued similar threats to Venezuela's leadership in the weeks leading up to the attack. In late December, Graham openly called for regime change in Venezuela, professing his support of “standing up to Maduro” and saying he wanted “him to go.”

The U.S. government has sought to topple Cuba’s government since the 1959 overthrow of U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, who opened the floodgates for American companies to exploit the nation’s labor and resources.

A number of Republicans have cheered at the prospect of finally toppling the Cuban government, including Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL), who shared an image on social media Thursday depicting Cuba plastered with the logos of American companies like McDonald’s, Exxon Mobil and Walmart.

Giménez was born in Cuba, and his parents, who were wealthy landowners, fled the nation after the 1959 Cuban revolution, which saw the systematic seizure of lands and properties held by the country’s elites, foreigners and Batista officials and supporters, though with compensation for seized property in the form of bonds.