President Donald Trump mentioned there might be a “pleasant takeover of Cuba,” although didn’t go into specifics, whereas taking questions from reporters whereas departing the White Home on Friday.
The remark got here after being requested a couple of deadly confrontation off the coast of Cuba on Wednesday, during which Cuban officers mentioned folks on a U.S.-registered speedboat fired upon Cuban border troops in an alleged try to “perform an infiltration for terrorist functions.”
Requested what he thought the boat was doing in Cuba and if he believed the Cuban authorities’s telling of occasions, Trump responded, “The Cuban authorities is speaking with us. They’re in a giant deal of hassle, as you realize. They haven’t any cash, they haven’t any something proper now. However they’re speaking with us.”
Donald Trump speaks to the media, as he departs from the White Home forward of his journey to Corpus Christi, Texas, in Washington, D.C., February 27, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
He then mentioned, “Perhaps we’ll have a pleasant takeover of Cuba.”
“We might very effectively find yourself having a pleasant takeover of Cuba,” Trump continued.
Trump mentioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio is “dealing” with Cuba “and at a really excessive stage.”
“You already know, they haven’t any cash, they haven’t any oil, they haven’t any meals and it is actually, proper now, a nation in serious trouble and so they need our assist,” he mentioned.
The remarks come a month after Trump introduced a plan to impose further tariffs on international locations that present oil to Cuba, declaring a nationwide safety emergency relating to the island nation.
In a Jan. 29 govt order, Trump mentioned the “insurance policies, practices, and actions of the Authorities of Cuba represent an uncommon and extraordinary risk,” with regard to U.S. nationwide safety and international coverage.
The order contains retaliatory tariffs on merchandise bought within the U.S. from “another nation that immediately or not directly sells or in any other case supplies any oil to Cuba.”
A month into the gas blockade, a senior United Nations official warned on Thursday that because of Trump’s govt order, the “humanitarian penalties are deepening by the day” in Cuba.
Trump on Friday didn’t present any additional updates on Wednesday’s lethal boat shootout.
Following the incident, Rubio mentioned on Wednesday that the U.S. was working to independently confirm what occurred.
The Cuban authorities mentioned Thursday that it’s sharing info with the U.S. by means of the channels that exist between the 2 international locations.
Cuban officers mentioned folks on a Florida-registered speedboat opened fireplace on Cuban border guard troops as they approached the boat in an try to establish it.
4 folks on the boat have been killed and one other six have been injured and detained within the shootout, in accordance with the Cuban Ministry of Inside. Amongst them, at the very least one American citizen was killed and one other injured within the incident, two U.S. State Division officers and a White Home official told ABC News on Thursday.
