Trump Says He Would ‘Certainly Consider’ a Cuba Military Campaign

Hugh Hewitt put the question to him directly on Thursday, asking whether the president would be “okay with” using “a little bit of military force” in “a week campaign” against Cuba.

“I would certainly consider that, yes,” Trump replied.

The exchange came in a telephone interview recorded earlier in the day and broadcast on Salem News Channel. It followed a first question on whether, if “freeing Cuba requires military force,” Trump would order that force before leaving office. He did not give a yes-or-no answer to that prompt, and instead turned to the timetable and to personnel.

An Aim to Finish the Job

“I want to get Cuba done before I leave,” Trump said. He pointed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “a very good, talented guy for Cuba,” whose parents are from the island, and added that Rubio “would love to do that.”

Washington is “watching it very closely,” he said. Cuba, in his telling, is “doing very poorly” and is “essentially a failed place, nation, whatever you want to call it, it’s failed.”

Pressure After Venezuela

The remarks tighten a threat Trump has repeated through 2026, after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro, who is now awaiting trial in Brooklyn, and Washington squeezed the fuel shipments on which Havana had relied. The cutoff of Venezuelan oil, together with U.S. sanctions, has deepened blackouts and shortages on the island.

In March, he told a Miami investment forum that “Cuba is next.” In May, he said earlier presidents had considered intervening “for 50, 60 years” and that “it looks like I’ll be the one that does it.”

He has not always sounded eager to send troops. In late September, Trump told reporters he expected a deal and said, “I don’t think we’ll need the military.” U.S. officials have separately said they do not see imminent military action against the island.

Havana’s Earlier Rebuff

Cuban officials had not issued an immediate public response to Thursday’s interview. Two days earlier, President Miguel Díaz-Canel had already rejected Washington’s pressure, writing that “the future of Cuba will never be decided in the north” and describing U.S. fuel restrictions as a “criminal blockade.”

He said that position had been clear “since the first of January 1959,” and would not change “however twisted the Yankee plans” to try to force Cuba to yield.