By Fortune Madondo

In the world of politics and power, manipulatory techniques are employed to support a narrative and create a reality. All this for what end… to deliberately contaminate global opinion, to shape public perception and discourse as well as manipulate perceptions of reality.

Sometimes, to disinform and hoodwink through a created narrative. Currently, some of these manipulatory techniques are being applied on Cuba.These lethal, interconnected and interwoven manipulatory techniques are agenda- setting, framing and gaslighting.

 Manipulatory Techniques

Agenda -Setting in politics is the process by which media coverage and political actors determine which issues become prominent, shaping public perception and government priorities. It involves a three-part system—media, public, and policy agendas—where media emphasis on specific topics dictates their importance to the public.

Framing, ‘Mental filters” – Framing in politics is the strategic process of defining, interpreting, and presenting political issues to influence public perception and favour a specific viewpoint”. It is about highlighting specific aspects while downplaying others…acting as a  mental filter, shaping how an issue is understood (in this case, how the current Cuban crisis is perceived).

By highlighting certain facts while ignoring others, political actors (in this case,Trump’s administration) construct a specific reality, shaping how audiences are supposed to comprehend issue/s (Cuban issue), assign blame, and evaluate potential solutions.

‘Gaslighting ‘War On Perception’ – 

Gaslighting in politics is a manipulative technique where political actors (leaders, parties, or movements) systematically distort facts, deny reality, and spread disinformation to make the public question their own judgment, memory, and perception of events. Unlike traditional political propaganda, which seeks to persuade, political gaslighting aims to disorient, destabilize, and erode trust in institutions , even governments through understanding of truth. Gaslighting is a control tool.

Executive Order 14380; Addressing Threats To The US By The Government Of Cuba, 29 January, 2026

“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby determine and order_ :

 Section 1.  National Emergency. As President of the United States, I have an imperative duty to protect the national security and foreign policy of this country. I find that the policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Cuba constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States………”.

 A Framing Tool

The  executive order is framed to point out that Cuba poses,  “extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States.”

Effectively, on the one hand, turning the victim (Cuba) of US imperialism into a perpetrator of harming and threatening actions on US, on the other hand turning the perpetrator (US… unending embargo against the island of Cuba) into a victim of threats and harming actions from Cuba. Classic misrepresentation of reality. Cuba is the victim but reading that 14380 executive order, one is baffled that the US is acting the victim, which is certainly, not true.

The order is setting a dangerous agenda, framing Cuba as a “threat” in order to present to the world, oil blockade against Cuba not as an attack (which ir truly is) but as a defense against a hostile actor that hosts foreign military intelligence capabilities and aids terrorist groups. Calculative, misleading, dubious and dangerous.

The 14380 executive order attempts to present Cuba as a threat because of its diplomatic relations with nations perceived to be against US imperial, global policy. Specifically, the executive order asserted that Cuba’s government aligns itself with and supports, “numerous hostile countries, transnational, terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States,” including Russia, China, and Iran.

The order is framed as a righteous US attempt at fighting for democracy and human rights of Cubans, thus the  order, accuses the Cuban government of persecuting political opponents, suppressing free speech and the press, and committing other human rights violations—actions that have been documented by human rights organizations over the years.

“The United States has zero tolerance for the depredations of the communist Cuban regime”, the order said.

“The United States will act to protect the foreign policy, national security, and national interests of the United States, including by holding the Cuban regime accountable for its malign actions and relationships, while also remaining committed to supporting the Cuban people’s aspirations for a free and democratic society.”

The  29 January, 2026, US executive order against Cuba “frames Cuba ” putting Cuba in the same line with the so-called international terrorist groups… an attempt to brand Cuba a terrorist rogue state threatening the US. A branding to justify the US imperial attack on the island of Cuba.

Executive Order 14380, order is framed as a critical national security measure, officially declaring a “national emergency” regarding Cuba’s actions. One suspects that the logic is to do a “Venezuela on Cuba”.. ,this cannot be dismissed as a wild guess for Trump was quoted saying “Perhaps we will go through Cuba after we finish with this,”. affirmed US the president in reference to the ongoing waragainst iran.

The Executive Order 14380 is framed in such a way to justify, strangling of Cuba by the US because, Cuba is a security threat to the US, because Cuba’s allies are hostile to the US, because Cuba supports terrorism .… therefore making it right for the US to strangle Cuba.

Executive order 14380 asserts that the policies, practices, and actions of the Cuban government constitute an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the US national security and foreign policy, hence, whatever the US is doing is justifiable, sadly, it’s not.

The  Order’s actions are openly framed and presented as an effort to save Cuba by bringing about regime change, with officials aiming to pressure Cuba into a new leadership structure to “save Cuba”.

The framing is meant to sound like a righteous interference, a friendly takeover, to save Cuba but basically the Order seeks to leverage Cuba’s economic collapse rather than provide humanitarian relief, using the pressure to break the Cuban government’s resistance….at the expense of millions of Cuban lives.

One of the most famous examples of framing in modern political history is the way former U.S. President George W. Bush and his administration framed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration used a strategic framing of the conflict as part of a broader “War on Terror.”

The administration emphasized the idea that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and could potentially use them against the US in particular and the world in general. This framing, combined with the post-9/11 climate of fear, cast Iraq as an immediate threat to national security of the US and global security at large.

Framing the issue as a matter of global and national security, the Bush administration was able to garner public support for military action. The “WMD threat” narrative was repeated continuously in speeches, interviews, and media outlets, leading the public to focus on the potential danger posed by Saddam Hussein rather than the broader geopolitical context of the invasion.

And WMDs never existed. Here we are Trump’s Executive Order 14380 is framing Cuba, as possessing an “unusual and extraordinary threat to US”*

 The Order; Hiding An Agenda 

The Order is driven  by a well calculated agenda-setting motive, to force regime change, through a litany of imperial machinations.

The US government has explicitly signaled a desire for regime change, demanding the departure of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and suggesting a “friendly takeover,” arguing that the Cuban government is a national security threat to the US.

Pro-Western media and social networks are focusing on the “imminent collapse” of the Cuban government, using digital campaigns to incite local unrest, although these efforts have failed to trigger mass mobilization internally.

The agenda is clear; divide a nation by directly exploiting the current economic crisis—including fuel shortages and blackouts—to turn the populace against the Cuban government of the day. Incite an uprising.

Trump’s US administration has stated its Order is there for the purpose of assisting  the Cuban people, yet officials (in the Trump administration of 2026) have publicly claimed that the resulting economic misery will force a “quick fall” of the Cuban government.

Since when or where has ever “economic misery” assisted people? This gaslighting narrative shifts between claiming the US is helping Cubans while simultaneously maximizing the economic pain designed to cause “regime change”.

Another agenda is to apply the same “Venezuela blueprint”. Applying  maximum pressure to eliminate a key ally of the Venezuelan leadership and reduce Russian influence in the region by dealing with Cuba.

And to realize this, Cubans are exposed to a, “collective punishment” causing a humanitarian crisis, which is intensifying to the levels of a crime against humanity.

Meanwhile, supporters of this US imperial agenda, view it and argue about it as a necessary measure to force democratic reforms in a 70-year-old communist regime.

The Order; A Gaslighter

More insidious but deadly is gaslighting. Gaslighting operates at a deeper psychological level to destroy the target’s ability to trust their own memory, perception, or sanity, forcing them to depend on the narrator’s skewed reality.

Media onslaught has been directed towards Havana, to mobilize people, to incite people, to incite uprising but this has failed.The media creating a picture that “now is the end” and in this case, the revolution in Cuba.

Executive Order 14380 has set in motion “maximum pressure” campaign against Cuba, a gaslighting technique to systematically deny the existence of the blockade while simultaneously intensifying it to cause more damage, forced economic collapse to satisfy US imperial tendencies.

The gaslighting actions of the order are; whilst the US enforces a strict embargo, it is presented as targeted sanctions against “regime officials” rather than a blockade against the people, but its effects are directly affecting ordinary Cubans, no energy, no food, no water.

Trump administration denies the reality that these measures create severe fuel and food shortages, causing nationwide blackouts and suffering for ten (10) million Cuban people. As US  Secretary of State, Marco Rubio was quoted saying that,the US has done;

“We have done nothing punitive against the Cuban regime.They claim we have, but we have not. The only thing that has changed is that they are not getting free Venezuelan oil anymore.”

This is the essence of gaslighting, refusing to take responsibility, refusing to be accountable. Herein lies a contradiction. When an imperial power cuts supply of oil, intercepts oil supply to a country and threaten anyone daring to assist a country in question by further tarrifs and denial of US market…is that not doing something to harm a country in question (Cuba)?

According to American psychoanalyst Robin Stern, author of The Gaslight Effect Recovery Guide (2023), “gaslighting is a powerful, insidious, often covert form of psychological manipulation, repeated over time, that erodes a person’s trust in their own perception of reality, judgement and in extreme cases, their own sanity”.

The process of political gaslighting makes use of certain techniques. It “utilizes deceptive and manipulative use of information with the motivation to destabilize and disorient public opinion on political issues.,” Farah Latif, a communications expert from George Washington University in the US, noted.

Reports indicate a strategy of manipulating public perception to sow doubt among Cubans about their own experiences of the crisis, contrasting local hardship with external narratives of “impending liberation.”

In reality, gaslighting is about creating false, alternate narratives not based in reality; calling them irrational or undermining their sanity for questioning the gaslighter’s narrative; covering up lies to make them sound convincing.

Political gaslighting can be about, downplaying the administration’s wrongs. The Trump’s administration’s oil blockade is inhumane and is a crime against humanity.

Ten million Cubans have no energy, no water, no food thanks to Trump’s administration Executive Order 14380. Instead of being accountable, Trump admnistration is choosing to blame Havana for economic inefficiencies and mismanagement, just to discredit the Cuban government.

Gaslighting may mean shifting blame. In a classic gaslighting fashion, the US frequently blames the Cuban government for mismanagement and inefficiency regarding the shortages, whilst, Cuban officials, international solidarity campaigns and observers of global politics argue that the US Order and policy denies and restricts Cuba from all financial and economic development options, making it impossible for the Cuban government to function normally.

Maximum Pressure Policy

On the 29th of January, 2026, the Trump administration implemented a “maximum pressure” strategy, including a de facto oil blockade, intercepting vessels meant to supply Cuba with oil as well as threatening sanctions on suppliers, and denying Venezuelan oil to supply Cuba (the arrangement before the kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro by US). Resultantly, Cuba was effectively cut off from oil supply, the main source of its energy.

Going through the Executive Order 14380 by the Trump administration against Cuba, one can clearly see what the drafters of the Order are after… political manipulation by agenda-setting, framing and gaslighting.

Political manipulation involves using hidden or deceptive techniques to influence public opinion, in this case, global opinion and perception on Cuba. An attempt at justifying the US Maximum Pressure Strategy which has resulted in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in  Cuba.

• F. Madondo (African Teacher) fortmada123@gmail.com