The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Friday at an event in Florida that his country would "take Cuba almost immediately" and suggested that upon his return from Iran, he could order the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to approach Cuban shores to force the regime's surrender, in the most explicit statements to date regarding Cuba from his administration.
Trump spoke these words during an event in The Villages, a retirement community with a strong Cuban-American presence in Florida, where he was promoting his economic policy for retirees.
"On the way back from Iran, we will have one of our greats, perhaps the USS Abraham Lincoln, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, stopping about 100 yards off the coast, and they will say: thank you very much, we surrender," the leader stated.
Hours before the speech, Trump signed a new executive order against the Cuban dictatorship that significantly expands and tightens sanctions against the Havana regime.
The measure targets the energy, defense, mining, and financial services sectors and blocks all assets and interests in the United States of individuals or entities connected to the regime, including current and former officials, their associates, and their adult family members.
The order prohibits entry to the United States for the designated individuals, except for national interest exceptions determined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and imposes secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that facilitate transactions with those sanctioned.
The sanctions took effect immediately and without prior notification to prevent the rapid transfer of assets, the White House explained.
The document states that the policies of the Cuban government "continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States" and that they "are repugnant to the moral and political values of free and democratic societies."
The reaction of the Cuban-American Republican congressmen was immediate and enthusiastic.
The legislator María Elvira Salazar wrote on X: «Praise for the Trump Administration for taking decisive action and expanding sanctions against this dictatorship. The era of appeasement politics is over: we will not allow a regime aligned with our enemies to operate just 150 kilometers from our shores.»
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla rejected the measures as "illegal and abusive unilateral coercive measures" and responded, "The Homeland, the Revolution, and Socialism are defended with ideas and with arms. They will not intimidate us."
Trump's statements on Friday represent the most explicit escalation of rhetoric that has been intensifying since January 2026, when he declared Cuba an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security and imposed an energy embargo.
Since then, the administration has intercepted at least seven tankers headed for the island, reducing its oil imports by between 80% and 90%, which has caused power outages of up to 25 hours a day in over 55% of Cuban territory.
In February, Trump spoke of a "friendly and controlled takeover" of Cuba; in March, he warned that "the takeover might be friendly, or it might not"; and on March 30, he stated that Cuba "will fail in a short time" and that the United States "will be there to help."
The Economist Intelligence Unit projects an economic contraction of 7.2% for Cuba in 2026, while the regime insists that its socialist system is not open to negotiation.
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