President Donald Trump said there could be a “friendly takeover of Cuba,” though did not go into specifics, while taking questions from reporters while departing the White House on Friday.
The comment came after being asked about a deadly confrontation off the coast of Cuba on Wednesday, in which Cuban officials said people on a U.S.-registered speedboat fired upon Cuban border troops in an alleged attempt to “carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.”
Asked what he thought the boat was doing in Cuba and if he believed the Cuban government’s telling of events, Trump responded, “The Cuban government is talking with us. They’re in a big deal of trouble, as you know. They have no money, they have no anything right now. But they’re talking with us.”
Donald Trump speaks to the media, as he departs from the White House ahead of his trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, in Washington, D.C., February 27, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
He then said, “Maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
“We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba,” Trump continued.
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio is “dealing” with Cuba “and at a very high level.”
“You know, they have no money, they have no oil, they have no food and it’s really, right now, a nation in deep trouble and they want our help,” he said.
The remarks come a month after Trump announced a plan to impose additional tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba, declaring a national security emergency regarding the island nation.
In a Jan. 29 executive order, Trump said the “policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Cuba constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat,” with regard to U.S. national security and foreign policy.
The order includes retaliatory tariffs on products sold in the U.S. from “any other country that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba.”
A month into the fuel blockade, a senior United Nations official warned on Thursday that as a result of Trump’s executive order, the “humanitarian consequences are deepening by the day” in Cuba.
Trump on Friday did not provide any further updates on Wednesday’s deadly boat shootout.
Following the incident, Rubio said on Wednesday that the U.S. was working to independently verify what happened.
The Cuban government said Thursday that it is sharing information with the U.S. through the channels that exist between the two countries.
Cuban officials said people on a Florida-registered speedboat opened fire on Cuban border guard troops as they approached the boat in an attempt to identify it.
Four people on the boat were killed and another six were injured and detained in the shootout, according to the Cuban Ministry of Interior. Among them, at least one American citizen was killed and another injured in the incident, two U.S. State Department officials and a White House official told ABC News on Thursday.
