Does this have to necessarily mean a conflict in the Atlantic and East Coast. US is now in the Philippines and the Germans have colonies and some ships in the region.
Of course, it could be in the Pacific as well. Though the other question is the lead time and getting Germany to intervene during the war. Or, perhaps, we mean later on (in 1899/1900), which would mean trying to invade the Philippines while the US is in the middle of fighting a war to pacify the region. The Filipinos wouldn't be seeing Germans as liberators, but conquerors all over again, so German ground troops would be waging a melee a trois in the area.
And, well, as mentioned before, the US did dedicate some fairly significant defenses to the area (two monitors, along with newer ships). The Germans could potentially outnumber the defenders by using greater numbers, and they are closer to a friendly port in the Pacific...
Then again, German occupation of Cuba was to pave way for German economic penetration into Latin America, while Germany acquiring the Philippines doesn't gain much more than depth, as they already have multiple Pacific ports. Less to gain, and still high risk.
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As for the war itself, perhaps the Tripartite Convention breaks down, with Germany wanting control of the entirety of Samoa and to drive the US from the Pacific, or at least Guam and the Philippines. As such, they make their move then. This can come before or after, but the result is likely to tick the US and the UK off, especially if it comes with Germany walking out, as the UK was one of the other members. In that case, Germany has to aggressively try and secure victory over the Americans before the British would decide to intervene or assist the US, either diplomatically or not.
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But as we are discussing a war between the US and Germany, and the majority of the war plans focused on either a German attack on the East Coast or an attack to try and gain Cuba and use it as a base to attack the Eastern seaboard. The plans were to bombard and occupy various US ports in order to force the US to grant Germany concessions, similar to the conduct used in China and elsewhere.