President Donald Trump has warned that he may launch a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, paving the way for yet another foreign intervention by the “America First” president.
As the Caribbean island nation faces its worst economic collapse in years, the president floated the idea on Friday, noting that he had been hearing about Cuba’s woes since he was a boy.
“The Cuban government is talking with us, and they’re in a big deal of trouble,” he told reporters as he left the White House for a speech in Texas.
“They have no money. They have no anything right now, but they’re talking with us, and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Trump did not elaborate on what he meant by a “friendly takeover,” but said that after decades of strained relations, such a move would be “very positive” for Cuban exiles living in the U.S.
Many of them are concentrated in Miami, Florida, about an hour south of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach.
Situated in the Caribbean about 90 miles from Florida’s Key West, Cuba is home to the United States military prison, Guantanamo Bay.
Trump has long described the country as a failing nation in need of change, but tensions escalated this week after Cuba’s Border Guard killed four exiles and wounded six others who sailed into Cuban waters aboard a Florida-registered speedboat and opened fire on a Cuban patrol.
The U.S. capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro also added to pressure on Cuba’s economy, as it dramatically cut off oil exports that were a crucial lifeline for Cuba’s fragile economy.
In the wake of the Venezuela strike in January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents were born in Cuba, described the country as a “disaster” run by “incompetent, senile men—and in some cases, not senile, but incompetent nonetheless.”
However, a takeover of any sort is likely to prove contentious for Trump, who has already come under fire by some—including those within his own base—for his preoccupation with foreign affairs.
“This is illegal and sets a terrible precedent,” said one-time Republican and former trial lawyer John Jackson.
“Cutting off energy supplies using our Navy and Coast Guard is the use of military force, and a takeover is not “friendly” under these circumstances, it’s coercive. We’re just becoming Russia at this point.”
According to the Miami Herald, U.S. officials close to Rubio met with former Cuban president Raúl Castro’s grandson on the sidelines of the annual meeting of Caribbean leaders on Wednesday in Saint Kitts’ capital.
This came as efforts to negotiate economic and political changes in Cuba continue.
The administration is also simultaneously weighing whether to strike Iran, months after the president claimed he had “obliterated” their nuclear capabilities.
But in his State of the Union address this week, he warned: “They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
The comments were viewed as an attempt by Trump to justify his potential involvement in yet another foreign war, despite coming to office as an “America First” president who would avoid such entanglements.
But as America embarks on the biggest military buildup in the Middle East since the Iraq War, the issue is particularly contentious for Republicans as they head towards the midterm elections in November.
Figures such as MAGA warrior Steve Bannon, former Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, and libertarian-leaning Senator Thomas Massie have all spoken out about U.S. intervention.
“Americans do not want to go to war with Iran!!!” Greene exclaimed on X last week.
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