Good morning! Today is Sunday, May 24th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. A gunman opened fire near the White House Saturday evening before Secret Service officers killed him, wounding a bystander and triggering a 45-minute lockdown while President Trump was inside. The USS Nimitz and its strike group have entered the Caribbean as the Justice Department indicts 94-year-old Raúl Castro and intelligence leaks warn of Cuban drones, with Ted Snider arguing the parallels to January's Venezuela raid suggest Trump was serious about saying "Cuba is next.". A Quincy Institute debate exposed deep divisions among foreign policy realists over the so-called "Donroe Doctrine," with Heritage's Daniel McCarthy defending aggressive intervention while critics warned it could push neighbors toward China and amounts to "vibes" rather than serious strategy. and now for the details. We begin this morning with a security incident at the White House. A gunman opened fire near the executive mansion on Saturday evening before Secret Service officers shot and fatally wounded him. President Trump was inside the White House at the time. According to a Secret Service statement, the man drew a weapon from a bag at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and began firing. A bystander was also struck by gunfire. The incident took place shortly after six p.m. and triggered a roughly 45-minute lockdown of the complex. As Andrew Day reports for The American Conservative, reporters on the grounds said they heard what sounded like dozens of gunshots before being told to sprint to the press briefing room. Turning to the Caribbean, signs are mounting that the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for military action against Cuba. The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz has entered the southern Caribbean, accompanied by Super Hornets, Growlers, and a destroyer, as part of what Southern Command calls a pressure campaign against Havana. U.S. intelligence leaked to Axios warns that Cuba has obtained more than 300 military drones from Russia and Iran. And the Justice Department has indicted 94-year-old former Cuban president Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft off the Cuban coast. As Ted Snider writes for TAC, the parallels to the buildup that preceded January's raid on Venezuela are hard to miss. Snider argues that the alarm over Cuban drones is overstated—U.S. officials themselves concede Cuba is not planning to attack American interests—and that the charges against Raúl Castro rest on a selective reading of history. Declassified documents, Snider notes, show that the pilots of Brothers to the Rescue, the group whose planes were shot down, had repeatedly violated Cuban airspace despite warnings from U.S. officials and the FAA. With acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowing Castro will appear in the United States "by his own will or another way," Snider concludes there is good reason to take seriously the President's warning that, quote, "Cuba is next." That Cuba buildup is part of a wider debate now playing out among foreign policy realists about how far American power should extend in its own neighborhood. The administration's 2025 National Security Strategy declared a "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine—what some are calling the "Donroe Doctrine"—pledging to keep the Western Hemisphere stable, well-governed, and free of Chinese influence. As Joseph Addington reports for TAC, a Thursday debate hosted by the Quincy Institute and the Conservative Partnership Institute exposed sharp divisions among restrainers over how that doctrine is being carried out. Heritage's Daniel McCarthy defended the aggressive approach, arguing that the Venezuela raid that toppled Maduro sent a signal to other regional governments to fall in line with American priorities. Defense Priorities' Jennifer Kavanagh countered that military interventions almost always undermine political objectives, and that the message being sent may instead push neighbors toward China. Quincy's George Beebe offered a middle position, while CATO's Katherine Thompson argued the administration's strategy amounts to "vibes" rather than serious policy—pointing out that SOUTHCOM remains the least-funded combatant command, and that the interagency coordination needed to back up the doctrine is largely absent. On one point, Addington notes, the panelists were unanimous: the administration's aggressive approach to Greenland is needless, since existing access could be secured through negotiation with Europe. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.
