WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Donald Trump said in a radio interview on Nov. 12 that he aims to free Cuba from communist rule before his term ends in January 2029 and would consider a military campaign if necessary. “I want to get Cuba done before I leave,” Trump told radio and talk show host Hugh Hewitt on the Salem News Channel.
“We’re watching it very closely. It’s doing very poorly. It’s essentially a failed, you know, place, nation, whatever you want to call it. It’s failed, and we’re watching it,” Trump said. Asked whether he’d be OK with using a little military force, perhaps a week-long campaign, on Cuba, Trump said, “I would certainly consider that, yes.”
He also praised his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, calling him a “talented guy.”
“His parents are from Cuba, as you probably know, and he would love to do that,” Trump said.
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has brought back the “maximum pressure” campaign against Cuba, leading to a breakdown in formal relations between the two countries.
Following a U.S. military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture and removal of regime leader Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, Washington restricted oil shipments to Cuba. By cutting off subsidized Venezuelan oil, the Trump administration removed Cuba’s most critical economic lifeline. As a result, Cuba has entered a severe economic and energy crisis.
In recent months, Trump has intensified the U.S. pressure campaign by expanding sanctions on state-owned businesses, government agencies, and senior officials.
One of the most significant escalations since the Cold War occurred on May 20, when Raúl Castro was indicted on murder charges in the United States.
On Nov. 5, the Trump administration announced new sanctions targeting eight entities and two individuals connected to the Cuban regime’s foreign military support and illegal revenue networks.
The U.S. State Department said that the sanctions aim to end the regime’s malign activities in Cuba and the Western Hemisphere. The measures target entities and individuals linked to Cuba’s shipping networks, China-based suppliers for Cuba’s military, state-owned import and technical support organizations, and Cuban elites.
“The United States will not tolerate subversive communist networks in our hemisphere,” Rubio said in an X post on Nov. 5.
“The Marxist Cuban regime relies on a web of state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, and offshore intermediaries to keep its systems running, and its foreign backers supply the military equipment that helps sustain the regime’s military forces and enables persistent threats to the American homeland.”
The State Department designated two China-based companies, China National Electronic Import and Export Co. and Beijing H&C Technologies, for allegedly exporting military equipment to the Cuban regime in 2026.
In its latest sanctions announcement, the State Department referenced its July 20 report, “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” which states that China and Russia have supplied the Cuban regime with military hardware, surveillance technology, and other security capabilities.
During a midterm campaign rally on Oct. 23, Trump said the United States would “take care of Cuba” after the Iran conflict was finished and hinted at the possibility of U.S. military intervention.
On Oct. 28, the U.N. General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution calling for the United States to end its 64-year economic embargo on Cuba. The vote was the 34th time the U.N. has condemned the embargo.
(With input from agencies)
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