After ousting Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro with a daring snatch-and-grab operation and decapitating Iran’s leadership at the outset of the week-old American-Israeli aerial war, President Donald Trump says the next target for his administration’s regime change campaign is a nearby nemesis that has resisted similar efforts for nearly seven decades.
The president told CNN in an interview on Friday that he believes his administration is close to toppling the communist government that has led Cuba, the Caribbean island just 90 miles off the Florida coast, since 1959.
“Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon,” said the president, who spoke with CNN correspondent Dana Bash by phone in a brief interview meant to tout American military successes in the six days since U.S. and Israeli warplanes opened an air campaign that has plunged the Middle East into chaos and left Tehran scrambling to choose a new supreme leader after an early bomb strike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s longtime de facto head of state.
“They want to make a deal, and so I’m going to put Marco [Rubio] over there and we’ll see how that works out. We’re really focused on this one right now. We’ve got plenty of time, but Cuba’s ready — after 50 years,” Trump continued.
“I’ve been watching it for 50 years, and it’s fallen right into my lap because of me … and we’re doing very well.”
More follows…
