The Republican congressman Byron Donalds, the favored candidate for governor of Florida, stated this Sunday on the NBC News program Meet the Press that he supports a full regime change in Cuba and will not interfere with the decisions made by President Donald Trump or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statements were published on his X account and reproduced by journalist Eric Daugherty, who pointed out that Rubio is working behind the scenes on the Cuban issue.
In response to the direct question of whether he would support military action in Cuba to achieve a regime change, Donalds replied: "I am not going to interfere with the decisions made by the president or Secretary Rubio on this front, but I think it is important for everyone to hear the words of the Cuban president."
Donalds was emphatic in describing the stance of the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, emphasizing that, in his opinion, "he prefers to continue suppressing the Cuban people to the point of rationing food, imprisoning political opponents, with no free press, and no ability to communicate, and he believes that it's worth dying for. I think that says everything that needs to be said."
The legislator also commented that Díaz-Canel "is a dictator who wants to rule Cuba with an iron fist. For 67 years, Cuba has been a communist dictatorship. They have suppressed the freedom of expression of the Cuban people. The Cuban people are currently rationing food. Their economy is in ruins. We need a total regime change in Cuba now."
Donalds' statements come on the same day that NBC News aired a comprehensive interview with the Cuban leader, the first such interview given by a Cuban leader to a U.S. television outlet since the one granted by dictator Fidel Castro (1926-2016) in 1959, during which he asserted that resignation is not in our vocabulary.
The geopolitical context exacerbates the regime's situation. The capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro in January 2026 eliminated between 80% and 90% of Venezuela's oil supply to Cuba, leaving the island with power outages of up to 22 hours a day and an economy that has experienced a 23% decline since 2019.
Donalds has been hardening his stance on Cuba for months as a central theme of his campaign for governor, where the Cuban-American community, comprising about 1.6 million people, is a crucial electorate.
At the end of March, he stated to NBC News that "the regime has to go" and that a free Cuba will be a great partner for Florida.
On February 11, he referred to the regime as a brutal and murderous communist dictatorship that has destroyed the freedom of the Cuban people for generations.
His statements this Sunday align with those of other Republican lawmakers, Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, who on April 9 emphasized that he is "convinced that this dictatorship will not survive this term of President Trump" and did not rule out military action.
Trump declared on March 27 in Miami that Cuba is next, while the White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, insisted on April 8 that the Cuban regime "is destined to fall."
Filed under: