President Donald Trump on Saturday discussed Cuba’s future during a summit of Latin American leaders at his Miami-area golf club.
The gathering, which the White House called the “Shield of the Americas” summit, came just two months after Trump ordered an audacious U.S. military operation to capture Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolás Maduro, and whisk him and his wife to the United States to face drug conspiracy charges.
During his speech, Trump mentioned how Venezuela’s “historic transformation” would be seen in Cuba.
“As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba’s at the end of the line, they’re very much at the end of the line,” he said.
Trump discussed Cuba’s economic issues and criticized its leadership.
“They have no money, they have no oil,” he said. “They have a bad philosophy, they have a bad regime. That’s been bad for a long time, and they used to get the money from Venezuela. They get the oil from Venezuela, but they don’t have any money from Venezuela. They don’t have any oil. They don’t have anything from people can’t even they land in Cuba.”
He mentioned Cuba is in “its last moments of life,” and said Secretary of State Marco Rubio is working on a deal.
“…And they want to negotiate, and they are negotiating with Marco and myself and some others,” Trump said. “And I would think a deal would be made very easily with Cuba.”
The latest developments from Cuba involves the top Justice Department prosecutor in Miami considering criminal investigations of Cuban government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry comes as Trump has raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover” of the communist-run island.
Recently, the a fifth man, who the Cuban government says was on a Florida-flagged speedboat that is alleged to have opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island’s north coast, has died.
At the summit, Trump also encouraged regional leaders gathered at his Miami-area golf club to take military action against drug trafficking cartels and transnational gangs that he says pose an “unacceptable threat” to the hemisphere’s national security.