‘I think I can do anything’: Donald Trump’s talk of invading Cuba next feels fitting for the convicted offender he is
President Donald Trump reasserted the possibility of military action in Cuba at a White House signing ceremony. Leading up to the press conference, Trump has already hinted at annexing the country for reasons still unknown.
“When you say Cuba is next, whatever you do with the military there… Will that look more like Iran or Venezuela?” White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump. “I can tell you that they’re talking to us. It’s a failed nation. They have no money, no oil, they have no nothing,” Trump replied. He proceeded to praise Cuba’s people and landscape.
“I do believe that I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said. “Taking Cuba?” Doocey clarified. “Taking Cuba, in some form, yeah, whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything that I want with it,” Trump says, then framing Cuba’s government as infested with “violent leaders.” He hammered on his point by calling Cuba a “failed state.” For now, it is unclear if the intervention will require a full-blown military operation.
What’s the point of invading Cuba?
Nevertheless, this situation begs the question: what interests does the United States have in Cuba for Trump to threaten control over the country? There are mass protests in Cuba largely due to the country’s repressive, authoritarian government. The civil unrest could definitely be used by the Trump administration to bolster their framing of ‘liberating’ the people of the country, as they did with Iran.
Guantanamo Bay has always been a point of contention between Cuba and the United States. Despite the Platt Amendment, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains the stance that the United States has placed Guantanamo Bay under “illegal military occupation and against the will of the Cuban nation.”
Trump has also reportedly been using Guantanamo Bay for undocumented migrants that the administration deems to be “high-priority criminal aliens.”
But this wouldn’t be the first time the United States has been attempting to intervene in Cuba’s politics. Since the Cuban Revolution overthrew US-backed President Fulgencio Batista and the communist premier Fidel Castro took power, the United States has had several recorded assassination attempts to force a regime change. These attempts and the coup ultimately failed and have pushed Cuba closer to the USSR—now Russia.
To pressure Cuba, the United States has imposed damaging economic sanctions and embargoes through the years. If Trump depicts Cuba to be an impoverished nation, he can look to the years of restrictive U.S. policies that shaped the country’s economics. Cuba’s central planning has failed its citizens, failing to invest in economic opportunities and neglecting its competitive sugar industry. There is, indeed, civil unrest among the populace—although often repressed by the Cuban government.
But after years of attempts, it seems that the United States has neither given up nor learned its lesson with Cuba.
Is a regime change, led by the United States, necessary? It doesn’t appear to benefit the United States on an economic level, especially with the ongoing issue of Iran. Moreover, it certainly reflects poorly on the United States for taking a hawkish approach. For Trump, who campaigned on ‘America first’ and spent his first year in office aggressively slashing foreign aid, he seems to take keen interest in meddling in affairs that the United States is better off without.
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