President Donald Trump says once conflict in Iran settles, he may immediately send Marco Rubio to the island of Cuba.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to come back from Iran. Those beautiful ships. We\u2019ll pass Cuba. We\u2019ll have one of them stop about 50 yards off the coast,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey\u2019ll raise up their hands, and then we\u2019re going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has been previewing a Rubio-led deal with Cuba since March, when he said the Secretary of State would take \u201cone hour off\u201d from Iran and then \u201cfinish up a deal on Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump made the remarks Friday at a midterm rally<\/a> 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.<\/a>, according to Pew Research Center. Of course, it\u2019s also home to Trump and Rubio.<\/p>\n But he was there chiefly to promote candidates on the ballot including gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds and U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody.<\/p>\n Announced by the Republican Party of Florida a week earlier, the rally landed in the heart of Donalds\u2019 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\u2019 opponent, campaigned in Broward County with former President Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n Trump recalled meeting Donalds when he was a state lawmaker who presented the President with a Bipartisan Justice Award. \u201cHe made a speech so good that I didn\u2019t want to speak after him,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n He also said Floridians should keep Moody in the Senate. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have a great continuation of a Senator,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to elect Ashley Moody to the United States Senate. And we\u2019re going to defeat the radical left Democrats all across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Moody faces Democratic challenger Angie Nixon, a state Representative from Jacksonville and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n 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 Gim\u00e9nez, Anna Paulina Luna, Scott Franklin, Laurel Lee, Brian Mast, Greg Steube, and congressional candidate Jim Schwartzel.<\/p>\n He also praised Florida\u2019s \u201cfantastic\u201d Attorney General James Uthmeier, who faces Democrat Jos\u00e9 Javier Rodr\u00edguez. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson was also on stage.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone here today is part of the greatest movement in the history of our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Gulf of America now, the whole shoreline is booming. They\u2019re selling T-shirts. They\u2019re selling everything,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey never sold anything, and it\u2019s booming.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just kidding. I\u2019m having fun but the fake news will report it as serious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trump also said Democrats cannot be allowed to win and would cause a 1929-style economic crash, and attacked Democrats for supporting \u201cgenital mutilization of children\u201d and allowing trans athletes to play in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n \u201cByron was one of the first people to endorse me \u2026 I\u2019m telling you, when I announced, he was like right at the beginning, maybe the first,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBoy, you were right there.\u201d<\/p>\n Donalds came on stage and said it was his honor to back Trump. \u201cAs your next Governor, we\u2019re gonna make sure that our government is accountable to you. As your next Governor, we\u2019re gonna make sure our children can achieve their Florida dream,\u201d Donalds said.<\/p>\n Trump also praised Moody and brought her on stage.<\/p>\n \u201cShe protected your children, supported our police, and put dangerous criminals behind bars,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd in the Senate, Ashley was the pivotal vote to give you the largest tax cuts in history, and much more than that she\u2019s been a great Senator, and she will continue to be.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to listen as drug traffickers gained more and more control because of Biden\u2019s policies, and our people died from fentanyl. I had to listen to that, but we didn\u2019t just listen. We fought back, and we won.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump says once conflict in Iran settles, he may immediately send Marco Rubio to the island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[18523,3853,171414,445,171413,209,211,210,1016,78589,1813,409,171415,171410,171418,28,32656,117618,171417,47501,171408,92111,8877,34527,171412,171419,171411,171409,171416],"class_list":["post-438576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-angie-nixon","tag-ashley-moody","tag-ashley-moody-faces-democratic-challenger-angie-nixon-in-senate-race","tag-byron-donalds","tag-byron-donalds-receives-trump-endorsement-in-florida-governor-race","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cuba","tag-cuban-americans","tag-david-jolly","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-trump-fort-myers-rally-at-florida-gulf-coast-university","tag-donald-trump-rallies-for-byron-donalds-and-ashley-moody-in-florida","tag-economy-and-foreign-policy","tag-florida","tag-florida-governor-race","tag-florida-midterm-elections","tag-florida-midterm-elections-focus-on-immigration","tag-florida-senate-race","tag-fort-myers-rally","tag-iran-conflict","tag-marco-rubio","tag-republican-party","tag-trump-campaigns-for-florida-republican-candidates-ahead-of-midterm-elections","tag-trump-predicts-republican-victories-in-house-and-senate-midterm-elections","tag-trump-says-marco-rubio-could-lead-negotiations-with-cuba","tag-trump-threatens-cuba-deal-after-iran-conflict","tag-trump-urges-florida-voters-to-support-republican-candidates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}