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Fresh on the heels of an audacious U.S. incursion into Venezuela, President Donald Trump and his cabinet are already musing about where they might be meddling next.
As he addressed the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a Saturday morning press conference, Trump said that he and the White House’s top diplomats will likely “end up talking about” using similar tactics against Cuba, which he called a “failing nation.”
“That system has not been a very good one for Cuba,” he said of the socialist-run island republic at the 49:15 mark in the video above. “The people there have suffered for many, many years.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took on a more ominous tone after Trump beckoned him to the lectern, where he told reporters, “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”
Joe Raedle via Getty Images
“When he tells you that he’s going to do something, when he tells you he’s going to address a problem, he means it,” he continued.
By time for a Sunday interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubio softened his rhetoric just a touch, but still appeared to leave the same options on the table.
As moderator Kristen Welker pressed Rubio to reveal if Cuba was the administration’s “next target,” the secretary said the island’s government was in “a lot of trouble” on the domestic front but he declined to address any “future steps” or policies the U.S. might have.
“I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime,” added Rubio, a Miami, Florida native who parents immigrated from Cuba in 1956.
WELKER: Is the Cuban government the Trump administration's next target?
MARCO RUBIO: Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem. Yeah.
WELKER: Is that a yes?
RUBIO: I think they're in a lot of trouble, yes pic.twitter.com/UHbmshmu0z
Even without the threat of U.S. military action, Cuba will undoubtedly be feeling the upheaval in Venezuela, which provides its aggressively-sanctioned island neighbor 30% of its oil imports.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel denounced Maduro’s capture during a Saturday rally outside of the United States Embassy in Havana, calling it an “act of state terrorism” against “a peaceful nation that poses no threat to the United States.”
Cuba was not the only nation the Trump administration told to be wary following the attack on Venezuela. During his official remarks on Saturday, the commander in chief accused Colombian President Gustavo Petro of being complicit in the cocaine industry and warned him to “watch his ass.”
In another interview recorded earlier that Saturday, Trump told Fox News that “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico” as he criticized President Claudia Sheinbaum’s strategy to fight drug cartels.
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