President Donald Trump stated this Thursday that he will be the one to resolve the Cuban issue, something no U.S. president has accomplished in over half a century, during a press conference where he answered questions about the deployment of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Caribbean.
The journalist from NBC News, Gabe Gutierrez, directly asked whether the aircraft carrier—which arrived in the Caribbean this Wednesday, on Cuba's Independence Day—was aiming to intimidate the Cuban government.
Trump flatly dismissed it: "No, not at all. Cuba, look, it's a failed state. Everyone knows that. They have no electricity. They have no money. They really have nothing. They have no food. And we’re going to help them."
The president then turned to a tone of historic openness and claimed a role that none of his predecessors have been able to fulfill: "Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years doing something, and it seems that I will be the one to do it. So I would be happy to do it."
Trump explained that his objective is to open Cuba to Cuban Americans so they can return and invest in the island, and he praised that community—mostly settled in Miami and Florida—as "an amazing, industrious group of people, they are simply great Americans."
The statements come amid a sustained escalation of pressure on Havana. Since January 2026, the administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions against Cuba and intercepted at least seven tankers carrying oil destined for the island, which is said to have reduced energy imports by between 80% and 90% and caused blackouts of up to 25 hours daily in over 55% of Cuban territory.
At the same time, diplomatic signals have intensified.
On May 14, CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana and met with officials from the Cuban MININT, marking the highest-level contact between both governments since 2016.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered on Wednesday 100 million dollars in food and medicines to Cuba, conditioned on the distribution being carried out outside of the military conglomerate GAESA.
On that same day, the Department of Justice filed federal criminal charges against Raúl Castro for the downing of planes from Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.
The regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged on Wednesday its willingness to negotiate, although it conditioned any progress on the lifting of the embargo.
Trump also rejected that the USS Nimitz is meant to intimidate the regime and clarified that the aircraft carrier is part of the Southern Seas 2026 operation, a multilateral exercise with scheduled stops in Brazil, Chile, Panama, and Jamaica.
This Thursday, Trump also announced that there will be "announcements soon" regarding the embargo on Cuba, indicating that the administration is preparing new actions in its policy towards Havana.
The presidential rhetoric has fluctuated in recent months between threats and openness: on February 27, he spoke about a possible "friendly takeover" of Cuba; on May 5, he threatened to deploy an aircraft carrier "a few hundred meters off the coast"; and on May 19, he stated: "I can fix Cuba, whether the regime changes or not."
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