During a meeting of the Shield of the Americas held in New York, President Donald Trump joked about the possibility of taking Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Cuba aboard "one of those big, beautiful aircraft carriers," leaving him there and allowing him to "take care of the rest."
"One day, in the near future, we will leave him in the middle of Cuba, simply on the way back from Iran. We will have one of those large and beautiful aircraft carriers take him, drop him off there, and he will figure out the rest. He always does," Trump stated during the meeting, according to a video released by the Department of State.
The joke came after the leader mentioned the serious crisis the island is experiencing and directed attention towards Rubio and his Cuban roots.
"What can I say about Cuba? Last night they had another blackout. They don't have enough electricity even for the lights. I don't know what's happening with Cuba, but things aren't looking good," he said.
He then recalled that the parents of the Secretary of State were born in Cuba.
"Marco's parents were born in Cuba. It's a great story, and he wants to understand it and resolve everything," Trump noted before launching the aircraft carrier proposal.
The president concluded the passage by praising Rubio: "His parents were born there, and now look at the position he holds: Secretary of State, doing a fantastic job."
Trump speaks again about an aircraft carrier off the coast of Cuba
Although this time it was presented as a joke about Rubio, the reference has a direct precedent.
In May, Trump threatened to send the USS Abraham Lincoln to the shores of Cuba when the U.S. military operations against Iran concluded.
"Upon our return from Iran, we will send one of our aircraft carriers, perhaps the Abraham Lincoln, and have it approach, stopping a hundred meters from the shore, and they will respond: thank you very much, we surrender," he said then.
Days later, he revisited the possibility during an interview and assured that the aircraft carrier could stop "a couple of hundred yards" from Cuba.
The repetition this Tuesday of the phrase "back from Iran" directly connects both comments, although this time Trump did not announce a military operation and presented the scenario in a humorous tone.
Rubio, at the center of contacts with Havana
The statements take on another dimension because just hours earlier, during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Trump publicly asserted that Rubio is involved in discussions with Cuba.
«Marco Rubio is handling a negotiation. He is deeply involved in negotiations with Cuba. We'll see what happens,» Trump stated before the assembly.
The Havana version has been more nuanced. At the beginning of September, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla acknowledged that "there have been conversations with the State Department" and that communication channels are still open, although he asserted that no progress has been made.
Cuba, once again at the center of Trump's discourse
The joke occurred on the same day that Trump described Cuba as an “absolutely failed state” before the UN and asserted that the island's political system would “fall.” The Cuban delegation left the hall during that part of the speech.
The references to the blackouts were not coincidental. Cuba experienced yet another national power grid collapse last Friday, which left millions of people without service and added to a series of widespread failures in the network throughout 2026.
This Tuesday, the Electric Union forecasted a peak hour shortfall of 2,050 MW, with only 1,180 MW available against an estimated demand of 3,200 MW.
Rubio had also recently spoken about that crisis. In early September, he stated that the blackouts in Cuba predate the current measures from Washington and attributed part of the problem to the deterioration of the electrical infrastructure and the lack of investments.
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