President Donald Trump reiterated on Monday his threat to deploy the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of Cuba, in a telephone interview with Salem News Channel in which he conditioned any action regarding the island on the resolution of the conflict with Iran.
"We would position the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln —the most impressive one I've seen— a few hundred meters off the coast and observe how they react," Trump stated, describing Cuba as a country "devastated at this moment, completely devastated," and asserted that "it would be an honor to liberate it."
The leader justified his stance by invoking the electoral support of the Cuban community: "I received 94% of the Cuban vote in the United States, and frankly, I have an obligation to do something."
The verified measurements from November 2024 place that support at around 70% of the Cuban-American vote in Florida, a historical record for a Republican candidate, although Trump has repeatedly mentioned the figure of 94% on several occasions.
Regarding the order of priorities, Trump was explicit: "I don't talk much about Cuba, other than to say that, perhaps, after dealing with Iran, something could be done after that, one after the other."
It's not the first time in less than a week that he has made this specific threat. Last Friday, Trump had already claimed that the United States “will take Cuba almost immediately” after concluding operations in Iran, describing the same scenario of the aircraft carrier 100 yards off the coast during a private dinner at the Forum Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is currently deployed in the Northern Arabian Sea as part of Operation Epic Fury, the joint military campaign of the United States and Israel against Iranian military infrastructure that began on February 28, 2026.
The threats arise within the context of a sustained escalation. On May 1st, Trump signed a new executive order that expands and tightens sanctions against the Cuban regime, targeting the energy, defense, mining, and financial services sectors, with asset freezes on officials and secondary sanctions on foreign banks dealing with sanctioned Cuban entities.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions against Cuba and intercepted at least seven tankers carrying oil destined for the island, which has reduced energy imports by between 80% and 90% and caused power outages of up to 25 hours a day in over 55% of Cuban territory.
The regime responded with defiant rhetoric. Díaz-Canel warned last Sunday to delegates from 36 countries about "the imminence of a military aggression" from the United States, invoked the doctrine of the "War of All the People," and declared that "every Cuban man and woman has a rifle" and an assigned defensive position.
Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla described Trump's words as "a new clear and direct threat of military aggression" and asserted that "Cubans do not let ourselves be intimidated."
The analyst Rubén Cortés warned, however, that the situation could be more complex than it appears: “We don’t know what Iran has brought to Cuba and that may be why intervening is not so easy.”
Trump concluded his statement by comparing the situation in Cuba to that of Iran: "What they have done to the Cubans and their families living in the United States is unimaginable, very similar to what is happening with Iran."
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