The president Donald Trump stated on Monday that Cuba is "completely devastated" and that "it would be an honor to liberate it," in remarks made during a telephone interview with Salem News Channel on May 4th.
Trump conditioned any action regarding the island on the conclusion of military operations in Iran, reiterating his plan to position the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the Cuban coast as a pressure mechanism. "Maybe, after finishing with Iran, something could be done afterward, one after the other," he stated.
"We would position the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln —the most impressive I have ever seen— a couple of hundred yards from the coast, and watch how they react," the president added, almost repeating word for word the scenario he had already described days earlier at a private dinner in West Palm Beach before the Forum Club.
Trump justified his "obligation" to act by citing the electoral support from the Cuban community: "I received 94% of the Cuban vote in the United States and, frankly, I have an obligation to do something." This figure is not backed by any exit polls or independent electoral sources; the verified results from November 2024 suggest approximately 70% of the Cuban-American vote in Florida, a historic record for a Republican candidate but far from the percentage he claims.
The leader compared the situation in Cuba to that of Iran: "What has been done to Cubans and their families living in the United States is unimaginable, very similar to what is happening in Iran."
These statements come just days after Trump claimed that the U.S. will "take Cuba almost immediately" after concluding operations in Iran, and that on May 1st he signed a new executive order against the dictatorship that expands sanctions by blocking assets in the energy, defense, mining, and finance sectors, and imposes secondary sanctions on foreign banks dealing with sanctioned Cuban entities.
Since January 2025, the administration has accumulated over 240 sanctions and intercepted at least seven tankers carrying oil intended for the island, reducing energy imports by between 80% and 90%, which has resulted in blackouts of more than 24 hours in over 55% of Cuban territory.
The regime responded with defiant rhetoric. Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on social media that "no aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba," while Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla described Trump's words as "a new clear and direct threat of military aggression."
In legislative terms, the Senate rejected on April 28 a resolution by a vote of 51 to 47 that sought to require Trump to obtain authorization from Congress before taking military action against Cuba, leaving the administration with broad latitude to act.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is currently deployed in the northern Arabian Sea as part of Operation Epic Fury, the joint military campaign between the U.S. and Israel against Iranian military infrastructure that began on February 28, 2026. Analysts believe this situation could affect Trump's caution regarding any actions toward Havana.
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