Kathrine Frich
President Donald Trump has put a firm timeline on a possible US intervention in Cuba.
When presidents near the final stretch of their time in office, their minds often turn to the history books.
Most leaders look for quiet diplomatic wins or domestic projects to cement their legacy before packing up. In Washington right now, the talk is about something much louder.
A new target
President Donald Trump has put a firm timeline on a possible US intervention in Cuba, according to The Daily Beast.
Speaking on Thursday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on the Salem News Channel, the 80-year-old president made his goal clear.
“I want to get Cuba done before I leave,” Trump told Hewitt.
When Hewitt asked whether he would use “a little bit” of military force to topple the island’s communist government, Trump said he “would certainly consider that.” He also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents came from Cuba, “would love to do that.”
The Daily Beast reports that Trump has hinted at taking over the island since March, when he said he could do whatever he wanted with it.
Despite calling himself the “president of peace,” his second term has already included a February war with Iran that sent global oil prices soaring, a raid in Venezuela to capture Nicolas Maduro, and strikes in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.
The numbers game
Behind the scenes, Trump argues that voters in Florida back his plans.
“I won the Cuban vote by 94 percent in Florida, and I think I’m more popular now than I was then,” he told Hewitt on Thursday, repeating a figure he also used on Monday.
Election records tell a different story. While Trump allies Byron Donalds and Ashley Moody won key Florida races during the recent midterms, The Daily Beast noted that Trump actually took 68 percent of the state’s Cuban American vote in 2024.
Anger in Miami
In reality, tough immigration raids by ICE have pushed some of those former supporters away, according to News in America.
Cuban-born immigration lawyer Ismael Labrador told the outlet last week that he felt “blindsided” after voting for the president, as clients flooded his office following family deportations.
“We wanted to have a safe America. We never thought that he was going to go after everybody.
This isn’t what I voted for,” Labrador said. Miami Republican Representative Maria Elvira Salazar raised similar concerns in a September video reported by The Daily Beast, telling Trump that his enforcement had gone too far and left Hispanic voters feeling betrayed.
