WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he wants to “get Cuba done before I leave” and left open using U.S. military force against Cuba before he leaves office, according to The Washington Sun.
“I would like to be able to do it,” Trump said when he was asked about an operation against Cuba in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt.
Asked whether he would do a week-long military campaign against Cuba, Trump said he would certainly consider it, according to Bloomberg Law.
“I would certainly consider that. Yes”
Trump pointed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the leader of the administration’s opposition to Cuba’s government, led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
“We have a very good, talented guy from Cuba named Marco … He would love to do that,” Trump said of Rubio.
“We’re watching it very closely. It’s doing very poorly. … I’d love to be able to do it for the people, for the Cubans that came and were treated really badly, and they came to America,” he said.
Trump also leaves open renewed strikes on Iran
On Iran, Trump said he would not hesitate to resume military strikes, and possibly step them up, if Iran attacked U.S. allies or ships, and he maintained that the United States controls the Strait of Hormuz.
“They’re not doing well,” Trump said of Iran. He added that “if something doesn’t work out, I would not hesitate.”
CNN reported that in the same interview, Trump said it was possible he would resume strikes “right now” and that he would “absolutely” consider it a “defeat” if he left the White House with Iran’s current leaders still in power.
“We control the Gulf in terms of the Hormuz Strait. We control it, totally control it,” Trump said, according to CNN.
Earlier post pulled Vance off the Iran talks
Earlier on Thursday, Trump used a Truth Social post to pull Vice President JD Vance away from the Iran negotiations, telling him “to focus his complete and total attention” on rooting out corruption and crime in Democratic cities and states instead of negotiating a new ceasefire with Tehran.
“We don’t need a deal with Iran,” Trump wrote in the post. “Those days have long since passed.”
“We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!” he wrote.
The Washington Sun noted that Republicans, including Trump and Vance, have blamed the Iran war for the party’s losses in the midterm elections, which cost them their House and Senate majorities.