Trump: 'I want to get Cuba done' before leaving office, military operation possible

LINK

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is considering using military force to take over Cuba before the end of his term in office.

“I want to get Cuba done before I leave,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, who asked him if he was considering “freeing Cuba” in a military intervention. Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would play a key role in the effort.

“We have a very good, talented guy for Cuba named Marco, because Marco’s parents are from ... Cuba, as you probably know, and he would love to do that.”

While Trump has repeatedly talked about deposing Cuba’s communist government, this is the first time that he has put a timeline on a possible military operation.

In March, Trump told reporters that he believed he would be “having the honor of taking Cuba.” After Trump ordered the operation that deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — a key ally of the Cuban government — the U.S. imposed an oil blockade on the island, collapsing the island’s electrical grid and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

Trump’s comments come a week after Republicans faced a resounding defeat in the midterm elections, driven in part by the administration’s unpopular war in Iran that continues to drag on and which has raised prices for fuel, food and more.

Trump told Hewitt that he would like to perform the military operation on behalf of the Cuban-Americans who voted for him in Florida.

“Frankly, I’d love to be able to do it for the people, for the Cubans that came and were treated really badly, and they came to America.”