WASHINGTON — On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters outside the White House that “a friendly takeover” of Cuba was a possibility.
The president was leaving to travel to Texas when he said the U.S. was in talks with Cuban government officials.
“They are in a big deal of trouble. 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,” Trump told Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg, NBC News, Fox News, and other reporters. We could very well end up having a friendly takeover Cuba.”
Trump also said State Secretary Marco Rubio was dealing with Cuba “on a very high level” and Cubans want help, according to a transcript from CNN.
“Cuba is doing very badly, they’re failing, Cuba is right now, to put it mildly, a failing nation,” Trump told reporters.
The hypothetical proposition comes as the U.S. and Cuba are investigating a fatal shooting at sea that involved a civilian Florida-registered boat, and as Cuba faces an energy crisis prompted by the lack of Venezuelan oil after the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro.
“We’ve had a lot of years of dealing with Cuba,” Trump said. “I have been hearing about Cuba since I am a little boy, but they are in big trouble.”
This is a developing story.
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