President Donald Trump used what was billed as a peace-and-security summit with Latin American leaders to declare that the latest nation to grab his attention is living on borrowed time.
Speaking at the administration’s inaugural “Shield of the Americas” summit at Trump National Doral Golf Club on Saturday, the 79-year-old president painted a dire picture of the country’s future while threatening that his administration will soon step in to “take care” of the island nation.
“Cuba’s in its last moments of life,” Trump said during his speech to leaders from 12 countries across the Western Hemisphere.
He went on to declare the island was “very much at the end of the line,” claiming “they have no money, they have no oil,” and is governed by what he described as a “bad regime.”
Despite that grim diagnosis, Trump insisted the United States could quickly engineer a transformation.
“A great change is coming to Cuba,” he said, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 54, would soon finish negotiating a deal with the island nation.
After laying out the dire state of the country, the president joked that the diplomatic breakthrough might take about as long as a lunch break.
“He’ll take an hour off, and then he’ll finish up a deal on Cuba,” Trump said of Rubio. “That’ll be an easy one.”
The comments came during the launch of the administration’s “Shield of the Americas” initiative, a new regional security coalition that the White House said is designed to combat drug cartels, illegal migration, and hostile foreign influence in the Western Hemisphere.
The president framed the island’s economic crisis as proof that his administration’s pressure campaign is working.
For decades, Cuba relied heavily on oil shipments and financial support from Venezuela. But that lifeline has weakened dramatically following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January.
A move that Trump boasted this week brought the island to its brink.
He told Politico on Thursday, “We cut off all oil, all money—or we cut off everything coming in from Venezuela, which was the sole source. And they want to make a deal.”
Trump also claimed that Cuban officials are already negotiating with the U.S.
“They want to negotiate, and they are negotiating with Marco and myself and some others,” he told the assembled leaders.
He even suggested that several Latin American leaders at the summit had privately urged him to intervene.
“Four of you said, ‘Actually, could you do us a favor? Take care of Cuba,” Trump recounted.
“I’ll take care of it,” he pledged.
Trump acknowledged that another global crisis is taking precedence. With the United States currently locked in conflict with Iran—which began last week with joint strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel—the president said any dramatic moves involving Cuba would likely have to wait.
“Our focus right now is on Iran, and we’ll do that,” Trump told the summit before asking the leaders, “What will you do?”
At the conclusion of the Summit, the president posed alongside the Latin American leaders for a group signing of a joint declaration related to the initiative, a moment in which the president bizarrely demanded that the triumphant music continue playing.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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