The president Donald Trump dismissed on Thursday the notion that the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the Caribbean aims to intimidate the Cuban government, stating instead that the intention of the United States is to assist the people of the island.
In response to a direct question from a journalist about whether the aircraft carrier was sent to pressure Havana, Trump answered emphatically: "Not at all. We're going to help them."
The leader described Cuba as a country in total collapse: "It's a failed state. Everyone knows it. They have no electricity, they have no money, they really have nothing. They have no food. And we are going to help them."
Trump framed the deployment in humanitarian terms and as an opening for the Cuban-American community, to which he gave explicit praise: "We have the Cuban-American population, a large part living in Miami and Florida. They are a great group of people, incredible, hard-working. They are great Americans."
The president added that his goal is to open Cuba so that this community can return and invest: "We want to open it for Cuban Americans so that they can come back and help."
Trump also claimed a historic role in resolving the conflict with Cuba: "Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years. And it seems that I will be the one to do it."
The discursive shift contrasts with the more aggressive rhetoric that Trump had maintained for weeks.
On May 5th, in an interview with Salem News Channel, he threatened to position the USS Abraham Lincoln "a few hundred meters off the Cuban coast" to "see how they react," making any action conditional on the resolution of the conflict with Iran.
The USS Nimitz arrived in the Caribbean on Wednesday, Cuba's Independence Day, as part of a deployment announced by Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which described the strike group as "the epitome of readiness and presence, unparalleled reach and lethality, and strategic advantage."
The arrival of the aircraft carrier coincided with two actions of high symbolic impact: the filing of federal charges against Raúl Castro for the downing of Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996, and a presidential message from Trump using the capture of Maduro as a direct warning to Havana: “This is our hemisphere, and those who destabilize it and threaten the United States will face consequences.”
The security situation had worsened days earlier when Axios reported that Cuba had allegedly acquired over 300 military drones from Russia and Iran, with discussions about possible uses against the Guantanamo Naval Base and Key West. Additionally, Politico reported that SOUTHCOM had begun planning exercises for possible contingency scenarios related to Cuba.
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 80% to 90% and caused blackouts of up to 25 hours daily in more than 55% of Cuban territory.
Trump was categorical in his message on Wednesday regarding the limits of American tolerance: "The United States will not tolerate a pariah state that hosts military, intelligence, and terrorist operations hostile to 90 miles from American territory."
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