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President Donald Trump declared this Thursday at a private dinner of the Forum Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, that he could send the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to the Cuban coast once military operations in Iran are concluded.
In a relaxed tone, the U.S. president described a scenario in which the ship would stop just 100 yards (about 91 meters) from the shore to compel the regime's surrender.
"On the way back from Iran, we will have one of our greats, perhaps the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the largest in the world, it will come, will stop about 100 yards off the coast, and they will say: Thank you very much, we surrender," Trump stated amid laughter from the attendees.
But what exactly is the vessel that Trump mentioned by name?
The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is the fifth aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class of the United States Navy, commissioned on November 11, 1989, after being built by Newport News Shipbuilding at a cost of $2.24 billion (equivalent to $6.82 billion in 2024).
With a length of 332.8 meters and a displacement of 104,300 long tons at full load, it is one of the largest warships ever built.
Its propulsion is nuclear: two Westinghouse A4W reactors power four steam turbines that generate 260,000 shaft horsepower, allowing it to exceed 30 knots (56 km/h) with a virtually unlimited range of 20 to 25 years without the need to refuel.
On board, there are about 5,680 people: 3,200 sailors for the ship and 2,480 members of the embarked air wing.
The Abraham Lincoln can transport up to 90 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, including F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters, fifth-generation F-35C Lightning II, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, E-2D Hawkeye early warning aircraft, and MH-60 Seahawk helicopters.
Its defensive armament includes Sea Sparrow missiles, RIM-116 missiles, and two Phalanx CIWS point defense artillery systems.
The ship has a combat history spanning three decades. It participated in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan attacking Al-Qaeda and Taliban positions, and during the Iraq War it carried out more than 16,500 combat missions.
On May 1, 2003, exactly 23 years before Trump's statements about Cuba, President George W. Bush delivered his famous "Mission Accomplished" speech aboard the Abraham Lincoln, declaring the end of major combat operations in Iraq.
Currently, the aircraft carrier is deployed in the Northern Arabian Sea as part of Operation Epic Fury, the joint military campaign of the United States and Israel that started on February 28, 2026, to dismantle Iranian military infrastructure.
In April, three U.S. aircraft carriers operated simultaneously in the Middle East for the first time since 2003: the Abraham Lincoln, the Gerald R. Ford, and the George H.W. Bush.
Trump conditioned the movement towards Cuba on first concluding in Iran: "I like to finish a job first," he said.
The Cuban regime responded defiantly. Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla declared that Cuba "will not be intimidated," while Miguel Díaz-Canel stated that "no aggressor" will subdue the island.
Trump's threat comes at a time of maximum pressure on Havana: the administration has imposed more than 240 new sanctions since January 2026, intercepted at least seven oil tankers, and reduced Cuban energy imports by between 80% and 90%.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio summarized Washington's position on April 27: «The Cuban regime has only two outcomes: neither of them good».
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