A U.S. official’s statement to Axios published on Sunday has a number of journalists bracing for impact, several of whom accused the Trump administration of “misleading” the American public in a “deplorable” attempt to “justify” a U.S. invasion of a sovereign nation.
Axios’ report claims that Cuban leaders had recently discussed plans to “attack” the United States and its assets abroad using military drones, with Axios’ Marc Caputo citing an anonymous U.S. official as the source of the claim.
Despite being involved in an ongoing war against Iran, President Donald Trump has increasingly set his sights on Cuba, which his administration is currently starving of resources with crippling sanctions that have shuttered hospitals and made food scarce. Last month, reporting revealed that Trump had actively considered “another abduction operation” to capture Cuban government leaders, much as his administration had with January’s kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The claim from the U.S. official, however, drew immediate scrutiny from journalists who quickly noted its similarities to the lead up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, a conflict launched on false pretenses that The Lancet estimated had killed around 600,000 Iraqis in the first 40 months.
“Real Iraq War vibes here,” wrote Dan Pfeiffer, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and co-host of “Pod Save America.” “Classified intelligence shared with reporters to sell a war to a skeptical public.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News, called Axios’ headline for the report “extremely misleading” given that by Caputo’s own words, the alleged “attack” plans were being discussed “in case hostilities erupt” amid Trump’s increasingly frequent threats towards the Caribbean nation.
“Ok but do they have yellow cake?” Grim sarcastically quipped, referencing the Bush administration’s false claim that Iraq had tried to purchase “500 tons of yellowcake uranium powder” to produce a nuclear weapon. “This headline is extremely misleading. The alleged plans involve Cuba defending itself if attacked. Seems like important context.”
Journalist Mark Ames warned of there being a “drone-age false flag incoming,” and journalist Max Blumenthal labeled the report as “recycled Cold War propaganda.”
“Axios disseminates another deplorable Trump disinfo dump, this time to justify a US invasion of Cuba,” Blumenthal wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 850,000 followers. “This recycled Cold War propaganda is an insult to everyone’s intelligence.”
Every unpopular war next a pretext. Every unpopular and unjustified war needs its WMDs. And Cuba’s now got one. Cuba is next. Believe Trump when he says it. The most important story in the world is STILL that Trump can do anything he wants with the most powerful… https://t.co/HtRiAMaVvT — Paul Rieckhoff
(@PaulRieckhoff) May 17, 2026
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