'They're in a big deal of trouble!' Donald Trump suggests 'friendly takeover' of Cuba
President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba amid escalating tensions between Washington and Havana.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House as he departed for a campaign event in Texas, the President said: “The Cuban government is talking with us. They're in a big deal of trouble."
He went further, adding: “They have no money, they have no anything right now. But they're talking with us and maybe we'll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Reports suggest US officials have recently held discussions with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro - the grandson of 94-year-old Raúl Castro - during the Caricom Caribbean summit.
The talks are understood to have focused on potential negotiations to open up the island nation.
“I've been hearing about Cuba since I was a little boy, but they're in big trouble,” Mr Trump added.
Relations between Washington and Havana have now deteriorated to levels not seen since the 1960s.
Mr Trump has increasingly focused on Cuba since US forces seized Mr Maduro - a close ally of Havana - on January 3, as Washington moves to reassert dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
Since the operation, the US has secured cooperation from Mr Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, who now serves as acting president and has pledged to open Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to international firms.
Venezuela has since halted oil shipments to Cuba entirely.
The US has compounded Havana’s difficulties by imposing a maritime oil blockade, further straining an economy already under severe pressure.
The combined impact has left the island increasingly isolated and economically fragile.
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Manuel Barcia, a history professor at the University of Bath who left Cuba in 2001 and maintains family ties there, offered a stark assessment.
“Cuba's Berlin Wall moment is around the corner,” he said.
“It sounds like [US Secretary of State] Marco Rubio has orchestrated a very impressive take down.”Mr Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who fled the island after Fidel Castro seized power, said on last month that regime change would be a “great benefit” to the US.
Mr Trump has long relied on support from Cuban exiles in Florida, many of whom have campaigned for the overthrow of the island’s communist regime.
His remarks came just days after an alleged incursion attempt, when heavily armed Florida-based exiles reportedly tried to land a weapons-laden speedboat on Cuba’s northern coast.
A maritime firefight ensued, leaving four people dead and seven wounded.
Cuban officials later said the country “reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defence is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region”.
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