President Donald Trump says once conflict in Iran settles, he may immediately send Marco Rubio to the island of Cuba.
“We’re going to come back from Iran. Those beautiful ships. We’ll pass Cuba. We’ll have one of them stop about 50 yards off the coast,” Trump said. “They’ll raise up their hands, and then we’re going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal.”
Trump has been previewing a Rubio-led deal with Cuba since March, when he said the Secretary of State would take “one hour off” from Iran and then “finish up a deal on Cuba.”
Trump made the remarks Friday at a midterm rally at Alico Arena on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus in Fort Myers. Florida serves as home to about 61% of all Cubans living in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center. Of course, it’s also home to Trump and Rubio.
But he was there chiefly to promote candidates on the ballot including gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds and U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody.
Announced by the Republican Party of Florida a week earlier, the rally landed in the heart of Donalds’ congressional district and drew a packed house as early voting gets underway in Florida. It was one of a string of stops Trump is making around the country to drive Republican turnout ahead of the Nov. 3 General Election, and his first rally in the Fort Myers area since he filled Hertz Arena in Estero days before the 2018 midterms. Doors opened at 10:30 a.m., and Trump took the stage shortly before 3 p.m. after an undercard of Florida Republicans, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. The rally came three days after Democrat David Jolly, Donalds’ opponent, campaigned in Broward County with former President Bill Clinton.
Trump recalled meeting Donalds when he was a state lawmaker who presented the President with a Bipartisan Justice Award. “He made a speech so good that I didn’t want to speak after him,” Trump said.
He also said Floridians should keep Moody in the Senate. “You’re going to have a great continuation of a Senator,” he said. “We’re going to elect Ashley Moody to the United States Senate. And we’re going to defeat the radical left Democrats all across the country.”
Moody faces Democratic challenger Angie Nixon, a state Representative from Jacksonville and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Trump also predicted Republicans would keep their majorities in the House and Senate. In attendance at the rally were U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Carlos Giménez, Anna Paulina Luna, Scott Franklin, Laurel Lee, Brian Mast, Greg Steube, and congressional candidate Jim Schwartzel.
He also praised Florida’s “fantastic” Attorney General James Uthmeier, who faces Democrat José Javier Rodríguez. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson was also on stage.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, and state Sen. Joe Gruters, the Republican National Committee Chair, were also in attendance despite not being on the ballot. So were Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power and Republican National Committeewoman Kathleen King.
“Everyone here today is part of the greatest movement in the history of our country,” he said.
Through much of the rally, Trump touted his own accomplishments, some of which immediately touch Florida. He drew cheers discussing the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a water body that the Fort Myers area abuts.
“The Gulf of America now, the whole shoreline is booming. They’re selling T-shirts. They’re selling everything,” Trump said. “They never sold anything, and it’s booming.”
He also touted his redubbing of Lake Ontario as Lake America, and said he wanted to rename New Mexico as New America, the Strait of Hormuz as the Trump Strait, and the Atlantic Ocean as the American Ocean.
“I’m just kidding. I’m having fun but the fake news will report it as serious,” he said.
Trump also said Democrats cannot be allowed to win and would cause a 1929-style economic crash, and attacked Democrats for supporting “genital mutilization of children” and allowing trans athletes to play in women’s sports.
“Byron was one of the first people to endorse me … I’m telling you, when I announced, he was like right at the beginning, maybe the first,” Trump said. “Boy, you were right there.”
Donalds came on stage and said it was his honor to back Trump. “As your next Governor, we’re gonna make sure that our government is accountable to you. As your next Governor, we’re gonna make sure our children can achieve their Florida dream,” Donalds said.
Trump also praised Moody and brought her on stage.
“She protected your children, supported our police, and put dangerous criminals behind bars,” Trump said. “And in the Senate, Ashley was the pivotal vote to give you the largest tax cuts in history, and much more than that she’s been a great Senator, and she will continue to be.”
Moody said she is pleased to be serving with Trump back in the White House, recalling fights with former President Joe Biden when she was Florida Attorney General.
“When I was Attorney General, I had to sit there and watch radicals running the White House, tearing down our border, letting people flood in. I had to listen to sheriffs who called me around the state that said that the Biden administration was forcing them to let out people who were committing crimes against our citizens and were here illegally,” she said.
“I had to listen as drug traffickers gained more and more control because of Biden’s policies, and our people died from fentanyl. I had to listen to that, but we didn’t just listen. We fought back, and we won.”