The president Donald Trump dismissed military action against Cuba this Saturday and favored negotiation, in his first public statements regarding reports indicating a possible military operation on the island.
Upon leaving the White House for Knoxville, Tennessee, he responded to reporters who inquired about reports of military reserve activation: "Cuba and we will reach an agreement. I don't think we need to resort to military means."
In the same exchange, Trump was straightforward about the situation on the island: "Cuba is failing very badly. We want to help Cuba. We want to open Cuba to our people. We have great Cuban-Americans who want to return."
Analyst Eric Daugherty, who shared the video of Trump on X, summarized the administration's stance: "Military action is never off the table, but it is clear that they prefer an agreement."
The statements come a day after CBS News revealed an internal memo from the U.S. Army in which the Reserve was assessing whether it could make available to Southern Command six types of military formations —including a medical brigade, an engineering battalion, and a military police brigade— within a timeframe of 90 to 120 days.
The document does not mention Cuba by name nor does it constitute a deployment order, but officials speaking on condition of anonymity have linked it to the island.
Before Trump spoke, the spokesperson for the State Department, Tommy Pigott, had refrained from ruling out military intervention and described the regime as "an island that is essentially moving towards the status of a failed state that is very close to our shores."
Pigott also accused Havana of being "a nexus of political terrorism in the world" and rejected the idea that sanctions are responsible for the fuel shortage: "The reason for the lack of fuel is the regime's own incompetent policies."
The spokesman also announced that Washington has offered 100 million dollars in humanitarian aid, conditioned on it reaching the Cuban people directly —through the Catholic Church, Caritas, and independent non-governmental organizations— and not the government. He also recalled that when Venezuela was sending free oil, the Cuban regime "sold 60% of that supply and kept the money."
Trump's words crown a week of sustained escalation. On September 22, he described Cuba as an "absolutely failed state" before the UN General Assembly and asserted that the regime "will fall," prompting the Cuban delegation led by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla to leave the plenary in protest.
Miguel Díaz-Canel responded by describing the speech as "completely arrogant, overbearing, interventionist," asserting that "the freedom of Cuba arrived on January 1, 1959... and we are not going to lose it."
For his part, the Cuban Deputy Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío stated in New York that there are "no advancements" between Cuba and Washington, although formal diplomatic channels are not suspended.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been the principal architect of the economic pressure.
On September 17, he announced sanctions against eight entities and three individuals linked to the Armed Forces and the nickel sector, including SERCONI, CEPRONIQUEL, CEDINIQ, and PINARES S.A., in addition to those imposed in May 2026 against GAESA and Moa Nickel S.A. Rubio also warned that there are figures within the regime "with whom we will never be able to work because their hands are stained with blood."
In parallel, the U.S. military presence in the Caribbean has intensified: two littoral combat ships arrived at the Guantanamo Naval Base in early September and more than 1,300 marines trained at Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico, on September 8.
Pigott left the door open to any scenario: "The president has a wide range of options at his disposal to ensure that our national interests prevail."
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