The US president has called Cuba a “failed nation” and is considering military intervention in the country before leaving office.
Published November 13, 2026
US President Donald Trump said he would “certainly consider” using military force against Cuba, adding that he “wants to end Cuba” before he leaves office in 2029.
President Trump was asked in a telephone interview Thursday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on the Salem News Channel whether he was considering “liberating Cuba” through military intervention.
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“I want to finish Cuba before I leave,” he said, adding that his administration is “watching it very closely.”
President Trump called the island “essentially a failed… place, nation, whatever you want to call it.”
Politico reported that this is the first time President Trump has given a clear timeline for a possible operation.
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents are from Cuba, “would be happy to do that.”
“I would love to do that for my people and for the Cuban people who came to the United States and were treated horribly,” Trump said. He added that he won the Cuban vote in Florida by a wide margin.
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President Trump has repeatedly threatened to overthrow Cuban authorities.
He said on Monday that Cuba “will soon collapse” and that the United States would support Cuba “on humanitarian grounds.”
In March, he said he believed he could have “the honor of occupying Cuba” if the country’s power grid collapsed.
President Trump placed Cuba under a de facto oil blockade in January after the United States detained Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and cut off Venezuelan oil supplies to Cuba.
He signed an executive order declaring Cuba an “unusual and unusual threat” to the United States and threatened to impose tariffs on any country that supplies fuel to Cuba.
The blockade caused repeated nationwide power outages, fuel and food shortages, and humanitarian crises.
Cuban officials called it “collective punishment.”
The U.S. government announced new sanctions this month targeting 10 people and entities connected to the government, military and oil industry, adding sanctions against Cuba’s state oil company, President Miguel Díaz-Canel and relatives of former President Raul Castro, among others.
The United States also issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Castro. Officials from both countries have held talks about the blockade, but Cuba’s foreign minister said in June that “no progress has been made.”
In March, the commander of U.S. Southern Command told senators that U.S. forces were not rehearsing for an invasion of Cuba.
Cuban officials said the island was prepared for any attack.
