President Trump and Rubio talk about Cuba after U.S. military operation in Venezuela
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak about Cuba at Mar-a-Lago on January 3, 2025, after U.S. military operations in Venezuela.
- President Donald Trump has called Cuba a “failed state” and suggested it could become a focus of future foreign policy.
- President Trump has repeatedly made offensive remarks about Colombian President Gustavo Petro, saying he is in charge of a country involved in drug trafficking.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Cuba as a “disaster” with a collapsed economy run by “incompetent, stupid men.”
- During his first term, President Trump reversed the Obama administration’s Cuba policy, arguing that it only enriched his administration.
PALM BEACH — With Nicolas Maduro in U.S. custody and U.S. authorities running Venezuela, who’s next? Cuba? Columbia? Panama Canal?
President Donald Trump said on January 3 that he was considering the Havana administration.
“Cuba is something we will eventually talk about, because Cuba is a failing state right now, a very badly failed state. We want to help our people,” the president said at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, the day after a U.S. military operation removed President Maduro from Venezuela. “It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the Cuban people, but we also want to help the people who have been forced to leave Cuba and are living in this country.”
The president also reiterated his offensive comments against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who last month denigrated the Trump administration as a “family of pedophiles” citing the investigation into sex abuser and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
President Trump said Petro also controls states that are intertwined with the drug trade. The president also said he stands by his assertion late last month that South American leaders needed to “watch their butts.”
The Isthmus of Panama, a strategic global corridor, was not a topic of discussion at the winter White House press conference, but President Trump appeased the Panamanian government over suspicions that China controls the canal. But the Central American country’s president, José Raúl Murino, said on January 2 that the break with Washington was over and the government was actively working with the United States to address grievances.
Therefore, it was mainly Cuba that President Trump was interested in speaking to in Palm Beach when discussing “Operation Absolute Resolve” to remove President Maduro from power in Caracas.
“We want to be surrounded by good neighbors,” President Trump said. “We want to be in a stable environment.”
The communist government in Havana, currently led by Miguel Diaz-Canel, has been in power for 67 years. On New Year’s Day, we celebrated another anniversary of the revolution led by Fidel Castro.
President Trump said, “Cuba is not doing very well right now.” “The system has not been very good for Cuba. The Cuban people have suffered for many years.”
Now that the United States is “running” Venezuela, as President Trump has said, the administration is in a position to completely cut off oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba. Oil subsidies provided to Havana by the Maduro regime were one of the few sources of foreign aid the Cuban government could rely on.
For this reason, there was great support from supporters who called for an end to communist rule on the island.
“Venezuela’s return to the rule of law and respect for human rights has international implications. The Cuban regime will no longer be able to profit from Venezuelan oil,” said Frank Calzon of the Free Cuba Center. “Iran, Russia, China, Nicaragua and Cuba have lost strategic allies in the Americas. And hopefully, if its vast oil resources are properly managed, Venezuela will be great again.”
President Trump’s harsh speech did not impress West Palm Beach Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel, who represents Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, which includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion.
“There’s no way to predict what this president will do,” Frankel said. “This kind of rhetoric is dangerous and increases the risk of escalation across the hemisphere. The United States should lead with diplomacy and stability, not threats that undermine the region’s security and ours.”
Rubio: Cuba is in ‘total collapse’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked by President Trump to speak about the situation on the Caribbean island 90 miles from the U.S. coast, added that Cuba was a “disaster.”
“It’s incompetent and run by old people, but incompetent nonetheless,” he said. “There’s no economy. It’s completely collapsed.”
Rubio earlier said his administration would “talk to anyone” but warned his opponents against playing games.
“Don’t play games with this president, because it’s not going to work,” said the former Florida senator and son of Cuban exiles. “I think we learned that lesson last night, and I hope it helps us going forward.”
Trump has long been involved in Cuba’s foreign policy and U.S. domestic politics. He is the only presidential candidate endorsed by the Bay of Pigs veterans organization, Brigade 2506 Association, first in 2016 and then in 2020 and 2024.
During his first term, Mr. Trump visited the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Florida, and gave a speech announcing that he would reverse the Obama administration’s engagement policy and resume tourism and trade ties with the Cuban regime, then led by Mr. Fidel’s brother Raul Castro.
President Trump said in a speech at the Manuel Artim Theater on June 16, 2017, “The previous administration’s easing of travel and trade restrictions is not helping the Cuban people; it is only enriching the Cuban regime.” “The result of the previous administration’s administrative actions was nothing more than further repression and a move to crush peaceful democratic movements.”
The then-45th president added: “Therefore, I am immediately revoking the previous administration’s completely unilateral agreement with Cuba.”
Antonio Fins is the politics and business editor for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. Please contact us at afins@pbpost.com.
