Trump Indicates Rubio Will Take Lead On Reengaging With Cuba
President Donald J. Trump indicated this week that the United States could move toward renewed engagement with Cuba, suggesting that negotiations with the struggling communist regime may already be underway.
Speaking to reporters, Trump confirmed that Havana appears interested in making a deal with Washington.
“With respect to Cuba, you said that Cuba wants to make a deal,” a reporter said to Trump.
“Yes,” the president responded.
The reporter pressed further, asking what the United States would gain from such an agreement and why Americans should trust Marco Rubio—the current Secretary of State and a Cuban American—to lead negotiations.
“Well, Marco Rubio is doing a great job. I think he‘s going to go down as the greatest Secretary of State in history. Look at what we‘ve done as a presidency. Look at what we‘ve done as an administration. They trust Marco and so do the American people… He‘s been successful no matter where he‘s been,” Trump said.
Trump also highlighted Rubio’s cultural and linguistic background as an advantage in the negotiations.
“He also speaks the language, which is always nice and always helpful. But he‘s dealing, and it may be a friendly takeover. It may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn‘t matter because they‘re really, they’re down to, as they say, fumes. They have no energy, they have no money,” Trump went on. “They‘re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis. And we don‘t want to see that.”
At the same time, the president emphasized the brutal history of the island’s communist leadership and acknowledged the deep scars left on Cuban Americans who fled the regime.
“But they were very, very bad to a lot of people, as you know, and a lot of people living are, the Cuban American vote, which I got at record levels, very important. Those people are very important to me. I know what they went through. They went through hell,” Trump continued. “Some of them have gone on to be some of the most successful people in the country. Cuban American business people, some of them are, like, the most successful in the country and a lot of them are friends of mine because I‘ve been fighting this battle with them for a long time.”
Trump also pointed to the collapse of Cuba’s longtime economic lifeline from Venezuela as a major factor weakening the regime.
“The Castro regime was brutal, but they lived off Venezuela. Now they don‘t live off — Venezuela sends them no energy, no fuel, no oil, no money, no nothing. They lived without Venezuela, they couldn‘t have made it. And we cut them off from everything else. So, yeah, they‘re going to make either a deal or we‘ll do it just as easy anyway,” he added.
Trump’s remarks follow comments he made during the White House’s Shield of the Americas summit in Florida, where he suggested the communist government in Havana may be nearing collapse.
Addressing Latin American leaders gathered at his golf club in Doral, the president declared that the island nation’s current system is nearing its end.
“As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba,” Trump said.
He described the communist-run country as “very much at the end of the line,” arguing that the regime has exhausted its economic lifelines.
Trump said the country has “no money,” “no oil,” “a bad philosophy,” and a “bad regime.”
The president has previously floated the idea of what he called a “friendly takeover” of Cuba and indicated earlier this week that the island could become the next major diplomatic focus for Rubio.
During the summit, Trump told attendees that negotiations were already taking place.
“Cuba’s in its last moments of life, as it was,” Trump said. “It’ll have a great new life, but it’s in its last moments of life the way it is.”
The comments come amid a deep economic and energy crisis on the island that has left the government increasingly vulnerable and dependent on outside assistance.