Trump lets slip that ‘Cuba is NEXT’ after Venezuela and Iran strikes… before quickly adding ‘pretend I didn’t say that’

Donald Trump said Cuba was ‘next in line’ after the war against Iran in his ‘peace through strength’ foreign policy plan.

The president made the remarks at a Saudi-backed business forum in Miami before jokingly trying to retract them.

‘I campaigned on the fact that peace comes through power; “I said you’ll never have to use it, but sometimes you have to,” he said.

Trump had just been talking about his success with the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, as well as his victories in ‘protecting our allies’ in the Middle East.

“By the way, there’s Cuba,” he said with a laugh in the room, before asking the media not to cover it.

‘Please consider that I didn’t say that. Please media, please, please ignore this statement. Thank you very much.’

But he later repeated it to the audience: ‘Next is Cuba.’

The president has often suggested that he would soon go after Cuba, even a few weeks ago that he would ‘have the honor of taking Cuba’.

Aid brought by the Nuestra America fleet from Mexico is sorted at the William Soler Pediatric Cardio Center in Havana

Trump was joined at the event by his son Don Jr and his fiancée Bettina Anderson, as well as his daughter Tiffany and her husband Michael Boulos.

He also called out advisors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba as he pushes for a change in the island’s political model.

Although the initial threats were officially toned down, the embargo remained in effect and no fuel shipments have been made to the island in the last three months.

Long-term power outages and the near paralysis of economic and social life are visible consequences on the island, which last week suffered two nationwide blackouts that left millions without power as Cuba’s power grid continues to collapse.

The US has said Cuba is in talks and Trump has threatened to take over the island soon.

Former Cuban President Raúl Castro is taking part in talks between the island and the United States, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Wednesday.

The talks Diaz-Canel said took place at a time when tensions between the two countries are rising and Cuba is grappling with nationwide blackouts due to its crumbling power grid and an oil blockade imposed by Trump.

Trump’s son Don Jr. and his fiancée Bettina Anderson also attended

Trump’s daughter Tiffany and her husband Michael Boulos, Dr. He was sitting next to Mehmet Öz

Díaz-Canel told Spanish leftist leader Pablo Iglesias in a videotaped interview that lasted more than an hour and was also shared by state media, that the talks were generally being conducted collectively by the Cuban government.

Although Diaz-Canel became president in 2018, the 94-year-old revolutionary leader, who is the brother of Fidel Castro, is still considered the most powerful person in the country.

Iglesias was in Cuba last week as part of a delegation of nearly 600 activists from 33 countries to deliver humanitarian aid.

“The talks leading to an agreement are a long process,” Díaz-Canel told Iglesias, who produced the interview for the crowdfunded TV channel Canal RED.

‘First of all, we must create a channel for dialogue. Then, we must establish agendas of common interest for the parties, and the parties must demonstrate their intention to move forward and actually commit to the program based on the discussion of these agendas,” Díaz-Canel said.

Francisco Pichón, the permanent coordinator of the United Nations in Cuba, warned that if the situation continued to spiral it could lead to a “humanitarian crisis”.

Pichón and other officials said $94 million would be needed to recover from the island’s energy crisis and hurricane damage last year.

He predicted that the crippled power grid would prevent 96,000 people, including about 11,000 children, from getting the surgeries they need and cause 30,000 minors to fall behind vaccination schedules.

Activists wave Cuban and Palestinian flags from the Maguro ship, which arrived from Mexico to carry humanitarian aid as part of the ‘Nuestra America’, or Our America Convoy, into Cuba’s Havana Bay on Tuesday.

Former Cuban President Raúl Castro participates in talks between the island and the United States

Approximately one million people who depend on water delivery by trucks have been cut off from access to water.

UN officials have highlighted the urgent need for fuel to enter Cuba, as well as solar energy as a potential solution to keep schools and hospitals running and pump water for irrigation.

‘If the current situation continues and the country’s fuel reserves are depleted, we fear a more rapid deterioration with possible loss of life,’ said Francisco Pichón, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Cuba.

This is an evolving story.