Trump wants to “finish with Cuba” before leaving the White House and would “certainly consider” military action

Donald Trump wants to close the Cuba question before he completes his term in January 2029, and does not rule out military intervention on the island. The US president said so in a telephone interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt of Salem News Channel on Thursday, November 12. Asked whether he would order the use of military force to “liberate” Cuba, he answered: “I want to finish with Cuba before I leave.” He then said he would “certainly consider” it.

Trump said his administration is watching the situation “very closely” and that Cuba is “doing very badly,” essentially calling it a “failed” country. He presented Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents come from Cuba, as the head of US policy toward Havana. “We have a very good, talented man from Cuba, Marco… He would very much like to do it,” he said. He added that he would like to do it “for the people, for the Cubans who were treated very badly and came to America.” The interview lasted 42 minutes and also covered Iran, where Trump said he “would not hesitate” to resume strikes “if something goes wrong.”

A run of remarks on Cuba

The statements follow a series of remarks by the US president on Cuba in recent weeks. At an improvised White House press conference on Monday, November 9, he said he imagines the Cuban government “will fall fairly soon,” while at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event at Mar-a-Lago the previous week he said Rubio “will take over Cuba” and joked that they would drop him on the island by parachute. The earlier remarks were gathered by NBC News. Rubio himself had called in October on those who want change in Cuba to work “discreetly” with the CIA.

Washington’s pressure on Havana has escalated since January, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, with executive orders cutting off fuel to the island and threatening foreign investors, as well as almost weekly sanctions on officials and state companies. The result is repeated blackouts across the country and shortages of fuel and food. Havana, for its part, put the whole country into the strategic exercise “Moncada 2026” right after the US midterm elections of November 3, in which the Democrats comfortably won a majority in Congress.

Havana’s response

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel had answered Washington’s earlier remarks with a post on his X account on Monday. “Cuba’s future will never be decided in the North,” he wrote, recalling the revolution of January 1, 1959. He accused the United States of “collective punishment” of the Cuban people through the fuel blockade and concluded: “Cuba is not a threat, the blockade is.” On October 28 at the UN, the General Assembly called with 130 votes in favour for an end to the embargo, though with the lowest support in two decades.