A heated diplomatic confrontation erupted at the United Nations on Tuesday when President Donald Trump’s ambassador, Mike Waltz, found himself in a shouting match with Cuba’s foreign minister during a speech to the General Assembly.
The extraordinary exchange unfolded as Waltz criticized Cuba’s communist leadership, accusing senior officials of enjoying lavish lifestyles while ordinary Cubans struggle with poverty and economic hardship.
But his remarks were interrupted when Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla rose from his seat and began shouting from the assembly floor.
Video shared by New York Post Washington bureau chief Josh Christenson shows Rodríguez approaching the podium as Waltz continues speaking.
Rather than stop his address, the American ambassador began responding directly to the interruption.
“The reality is, he doesn’t like the substance,” Waltz said, referring to the Cuban official’s objections.
The confrontation quickly became more intense as Rodríguez continued moving toward the podium.
“You can come and intimidate all you want,” Waltz declared. “I ask you to back away from this podium.”
Waltz then turned toward the president of the General Assembly, Khalilur Rahman, who was seated behind him.
“Mr. President, this individual needs to back away from this podium,” Waltz said. “He’s not going to intimidate me, in the United States of America like he tries to intimidate political prisoners.”
But Rodríguez was not finished.
As the Cuban foreign minister continued shouting, Waltz raised his voice.
“And I’m the representative of the United States of America — back up!” he demanded.
Then came the moment that made the exchange particularly explosive.
“You are a liar!” Rodríguez shouted.
“Back up!” Waltz fired back.
The confrontation, captured on video, was a striking departure from the carefully controlled diplomatic exchanges normally associated with the General Assembly.
It also reflected the increasingly bitter relationship between Washington and Havana under the Trump administration.
The dispute took place against the backdrop of the longstanding American economic embargo on Cuba, which has remained a major source of international disagreement for decades.
Cuba’s government has repeatedly blamed American sanctions for worsening the country’s economic difficulties, while U.S. officials have accused Cuban leaders of corruption, repression and mismanagement.
Waltz used his address to focus on the privileges enjoyed by Cuba’s political elite.
Following the confrontation, he continued that message on social media.
“Cuba’s Communist leaders don’t want you to know about their luxury real estate portfolio, but we have the receipts,” Waltz wrote on X, sharing a clip from his speech.
In another post, he accused Cuban officials of wearing expensive watches while ordinary citizens endure power outages.
“See the corrupt Cuban regime’s Rolex collection while their people sit in the dark,” he wrote.
Those allegations were part of Waltz’s broader argument that Cuba’s leadership bears responsibility for the suffering of its population.
The Cuban government, meanwhile, has long maintained that U.S. restrictions are a major driver of the country’s economic crisis.
Waltz also alleged that a member of the Cuban delegation had attempted to interfere with the recording of his speech and pressure UN personnel to cut off American microphones.
“One of the Cuban regime’s ‘diplomats’ tried to intimidate UN staff into cutting our microphones as I exposed the regime for the world to see,” he wrote.
Those claims were made by Waltz and were not independently established by the footage of the shouting match.
The episode provided an unusually public illustration of the hostility between the two governments.
And while heated disagreements are hardly unusual at the United Nations, it is far less common to see a foreign minister leave his seat, approach another country’s ambassador and engage in a shouting confrontation during an address.
The footage shows both officials refusing to back down, with Waltz repeatedly ordering Rodríguez away from the podium as the Cuban minister challenged his statements.
For viewers watching the exchange, the diplomatic language had largely disappeared.
What remained was an extraordinary confrontation between two senior government representatives, unfolding in full view of the international assembly.
And the moment when Cuba’s foreign minister called Trump’s ambassador a liar ensured that the dispute would not remain confined to the UN chamber.
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