When President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Thursday about Cuba, they presented military force as an available option even as Rubio argued the United States prefers negotiations. Trump, speaking during an environmental event in the Oval Office, told reporters that earlier U.S. presidents had weighed intervening on the island for decades and implied he expected to be the one to act. Rubio, speaking separately in Miami after Trump’s remarks, said the administration’s preference remains a peaceful negotiated agreement, but he said the odds of reaching one are low given the leadership in Havana.
Rubio said Cuba has posed a national security threat for years, citing the island’s ties to U.S. adversaries. He pointed to China and Russia among those relationships and linked them to the Trump administration’s case that Cuba’s government is not merely a historical dispute but an ongoing risk to the United States. In response to a reporter’s questions, Rubio also described the president’s ability to pursue options beyond diplomacy, saying the president always keeps an option to act to support and protect the national interest.
In his remarks, Rubio also sought to distinguish the administration’s approach from what some reporters called “nation-building.” He said the focus is addressing a security risk rather than changing Cuba’s political system through a broader project. Rubio said previous U.S. administrations have explored ways to improve relations, including meetings involving top Trump aides, but that the United States left those discussions unimpressed, and the administration imposed additional sanctions on Cuba in the past week.
The backdrop to the renewed public threats was a criminal case made public the day before. Federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment that accuses Raúl Castro of ordering the 1996 shootdown of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles, federal prosecutors said, and the charges reportedly include murder and destruction of an airplane. Cuban officials rejected the case; Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt, saying it sought only to justify what he described as the folly of military aggression against Cuba.
The indictment came as the U.S. military increased visible activity in the Caribbean. On the same day the charges against Castro were announced, the U.S. military highlighted the arrival of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and accompanying ships in the Caribbean Sea, and the U.S. Southern Command said they were taking part in maritime exercises with partners in Latin America that began in March. Rubio did not say how the U.S. would carry out any effort tied to the indictment, including in relation to Castro, who turns 95 next month.
Trump has continued to link Cuba policy to pressure and coercive steps since the administration took office, including threats of force described by Rubio and Trump in public remarks. The AP report said Trump threatened military action in Cuba after ousting Nicolás Maduro and ordered an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, developments that have been tied to blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse on the island. The report also said the administration has slapped new sanctions this month, including its largest action against GAESA, a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.
On Thursday, Rubio said the administration also moved against Cuban-linked financial networks through enforcement targeting family members of Cuban military elites. He announced that the sister of GAESA’s executive president, who had been living in the United States, had her green card revoked and was arrested, and he said she was in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Rubio said in a statement that past administrations permitted families of Cuban military elites and other groups he described as reprehensible to live in the United States on money he characterized as stolen from people in Cuba.
The AP report also described broader pushback on the U.S. actions from abroad. China opposes U.S. sanctions and pressure on Cuba, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said Thursday, adding that China supports Cuba in safeguarding its national sovereignty and dignity and opposes external interference. The comments from Trump and Rubio arrived as the administration’s criminal case against Castro and its tightening sanctions regime continued to shape its approach to Cuba.