Trump floats ‘taking Cuba’ to ‘free it’

President Donald Trump said March 16 that he may “take” Cuba, perhaps to “free” it. 

“I think I can do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth," Trump told Fox Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocey during a White House gaggle with reporters.

“When you say Cuba is next,” Doocey had asked before Trump’s comments, “is Cuba – whatever you do with the military there, it seems like something – will that look more like Iran or Venezuela?” 

Trump replied in part, “I can’t tell you that. I can tell you that they're talking to us. It's a failed nation. They have no money, they have no oil, they have no nothing. They have nice land. They have nice landscape, you know. It’s a beautiful island.” 

The President suggested that he has heard all his life about the U.S. potentially gaining control of Cuba. “I do believe I'll be … having the honor of taking Cuba,” he said. “That's a big honor."

FOX News pointed out in a report that Trump’s comments came the same day Cuba went into an islandwide blackout after its electrical grid underwent a sudden total collapse. 

AP News reported that as of March 17, power is slowly being restored for residents across the island, but outages due to the aging grid have become a regular occurrence. The outlet reported that the Cuban government “blames its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.”

In January, crucial oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba were halted as U.S. forces invaded and captured Venezuela's then-president Nicolas Maduro, AP noted. Trump’s administration has also said it would lift sanctions on the conditions that Cuba release political prisoners and work “toward political and economic liberalization,” the outlet added. Cuba currently produces 40% of its own petroleum.

In response to a followup question from Doocy, Trump reiterated that he believes he will be “taking Cuba, in some form.” 

“Taking Cuba, I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth,” the President continued. “They're a very weakened nation right now. They were for a long time. A very violent, very violent leaders – Castro is a very violent leader. His brother is a very violent leader, extremely violent. That's how they governed. They governed with violence. But a lot of people would like to go back.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said March 13 that the government “is in talks with Trump administration officials,” FOX News reported. 

Also on March 17, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on Cuba’s situation and did not reject the notion of potentially easing the U.S.’ longtime embargo on Cuba in order to achieve political reform, according to The Hill. 

“Suffice it to say that the embargo is tied to political change on the island. The law is codified, but the bottom line is, their economy doesn’t work. It’s a non-functional economy,” Rubio said. 

He added that Cuba does not get subsidies from Venezuela anymore, which it has long relied on. 

“So they’re in a lot of trouble, and the people in charge, they don’t know how to fix it, so they have to get new people in charge,” he said.