BREAKING: Trump says US may have a 'friendly takeover of Cuba'

Speaking to reporters on Friday, President Donald Trump said the United States may have "a friendly takeover of Cuba." This comes after Cuba opened fire on a US-registered boat, killing four people, including one American, and injuring six others. 

"The Cuban government is talking with us, and they're in a big deal of trouble, as you know ... but they're talking with us and maybe we'll have a friendly takeover of Cuba. We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba," Trump said.

"After many, many years," Trump said, "we've had a lot of years of dealing with Cuba. I've been hearing about Cuba since I'm a little boy. But they're in big trouble and we could very well, something could, I think very positive for the people that were expelled or worse, from Cuba, that live here. We have people living here that want to go back to Cuba. And they're very happy with what's going on."

When he took office, Trump reversed Biden-era regulations on Cuba, making them much tighter. Biden was met with protests in 2021 after demonstrations in Cuba called for liberty and freedom. In January 2026, Trump signed an order "declaring a national emergency and establishing a process to impose tariffs on goods from countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to Cuba, protecting U.S. national security and foreign policy from the Cuban regime’s malign actions and policies."

Trump also took aim at Venezuela, ousting leader Nicolas Maduro, who was not recognized as the legitimate leader of the oil-rich nation. That removal of Maduro increased pressure on Cuba. The president further addressed "the depredations of the communist Cuban regime by taking decisive action to hold the Cuban regime accountable for its support of hostile actors, terrorism, and regional instability that endanger American security and foreign policy."

All of this was part of the Trump America first policy. Trump has been dabbling with the idea of increasing the territorial size of the United States, saying repeatedly that perhaps Greenland should come under the banner of the Stars and Stripes. Cuba would be a stronghold in the Caribbean, where the Pentagon has been wiping out drug-running boats and commandeering oil tankers.