Trump plans to overthrow Cuban authorities before leaving office | Donald Trump News
Calling Cuba a “failed nation,” the US president is considering military intervention in Cuba before leaving office.
Published on November 13, 2026
US President Donald Trump said he would “certainly consider” using military force against Cuba, adding that he wanted to “finish Cuba” before leaving office in 2029.
In a phone interview Thursday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt of the Salem News Channel, Trump was asked if he would consider “liberating Cuba” through military intervention.
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“I want to finish Cuba before I leave,” he said, adding that the administration was “watching this very closely.”
Trump called the island “basically a failed place, a failed nation, whatever you want to call it.”
Politico reported that this was the first time Trump had set a timetable for a possible operation.
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents are from Cuba, “would love to do it.”
“I would love to be able to do it for the people, for the Cubans who came and were treated very poorly, and they came to America,” Trump said. He added that he had won the Cuban vote in Florida by a large margin.
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Trump has repeatedly threatened to overthrow Cuban authorities.
On Monday, he said Cuba would “fall fairly soon” and that the United States would help “on a humanitarian basis.”
In March, he said he believed he had “the honor of taking Cuba,” making the remarks as the island’s power grid collapsed.
Trump placed Cuba under a de facto oil blockade in January, after the United States seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and cut off Venezuelan oil supplies to the island.
He signed an executive order declaring Cuba “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States and threatened to impose tariffs on any country that supplied it with fuel.
The blockade has caused repeated nationwide power outages, fuel and food shortages, and a humanitarian crisis.
Cuban officials called it “collective punishment.”
Washington has added sanctions, including against Cuba’s national oil company, President Miguel Diaz-Canel and those close to former President Raul Castro, and this month announced a new round of sanctions targeting 10 people and entities linked to the government, military and oil industry.
The United States also issued an arrest warrant for Castro. Officials from both sides have held discussions about the blockade, but Cuba’s foreign minister said in June that there had been “no progress.”
In March, the head of U.S. Southern Command told senators that U.S. troops were not preparing an invasion of Cuba.
Cuban officials have said the island is ready for any attack.
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