When you hear the phrase ‘flooding the zone,’ you may think of a particular play in football or soccer. But, it also defines one of the most successful tactics to confuse the public, conducted by the Trump administration and has been used as a primary strategy ever since President Trump’s first election in 2016.
The premise of the tactic is to overload the general media with stories to cover or flood the media to the point where it is no longer beneficial for news sources to cover an event from start to finish. This could look like demands to the Washington Commanders to change their name back to the Redskins rather than addressing the Epstein files, or obsessing over voter fraud rather than acknowledging that the U.S. is on the brink of war with Iran. Due to this, a veil of unstoppable power has been cast over the President, which may be far thinner than it seems.
Alongside this, “Flooding the Zone” draws attention away from the truly significant or damaging things that our presidential administration is currently carrying out. A prime example of this is Cuba, where a far more consequential and underreported event is unfolding.
In January of 2026, President Trump declared Cuba to be an unusual and extraordinary threat to the security of the U.S. This designation allows the government to implement sweeping economic restrictions on Cuba and has resulted in the establishment of a brutal fuel blockade set upon the entire country of Cuba.
The Cuban fuel crisis has been going on for years, but now it is becoming more extreme. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order that applies a tariff to any country that sells oil to Cuba.
Venezuela provides around 30% to 35% of Cuba’s total oil consumption. As a strategy to enforce the ferocity of this tariff, the U.S. government invaded Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro Moros and National Assembly deputy Cilia Flores. The United States informed the Venezuelan government that if it did not end its trade of oil with Cuba, the U.S. would essentially convert downtown Caracas into Gaza City. The remainder of the Venezuelan government was forced to concede to these demands.
Cuba’s health minister, Jose Angel Portal Miranda, insists that the U.S. sanctions are not only reducing the island’s economy; they’re threatening basic human safety, as medical facilities are no longer functioning.
According to Reporters on Cuban land at Al Jazeera, ambulances are struggling to find fuel to respond to emergencies, persistent outages plague deteriorated hospitals, flights bringing vital supplies have been suspended and technologies reliant on energy, like CT scans, have been deemed unreliable.
“I can tell you that the Secretary-General is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba.” United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, “which will worsen, and if not collapse, if its oil needs go unmet.”
This is just one example of the imperialistic control the U.S. government is imposing. You can find this imperialism in the direction aid is going in the Gaza conflict, you can find it in the Greenland annexation threats, you can find it in the cuts in aid to Ukraine and you can even find it in our own country via visa restrictions.
However, President Trump is failing in the courts with one case after another, but with each new news story, that failing result is often glossed over. This is not a call to action, nor is it a warning; this is a reminder not to let this administration flood your zone and cloud your vision. Once you recognize the pattern, the effect of the tactic will wear off, and Trump’s veil of power will begin to tatter.
