Trump imagines a jump by Rubio on Cuba and praises his management

Donald Trump again resorted to an imaginary scene to talk about Cuba: Marco Rubio would arrive by parachute and find a solution for the island. The U.S. president made the comment jokingly during a conservative gala on Friday, November 6. The speech included praise for the secretary of state, but did not present a military mission or concrete measures towards Cuban territory.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) released a video of the speech on X, in which Trump highlighted Rubio's Cuban ancestry and recalled the birthplace of his parents. The private meeting brought together conservative donors, leaders and representatives from November 4 to 7. The organization had presented it as an opportunity to bring together its main figures and collaborators.

The presidential recognition came after Rubio denied that he was preparing his departure from the Executive to seek the presidency in 2028. On Thursday, the official explained that he had always planned to accompany Trump throughout his term and avoided elaborating on a possible electoral aspiration. The White House and the State Department also rejected those versions, while Dylan Johnson, deputy head of Global Public Affairs, described them as fabricated.

The conservative meeting took place against the backdrop of the result of the November 3 legislative elections, which left the Republicans without control of both houses of Congress. Rubio and Stephen Miller also took the floor on Friday. That day it was announced that Miller would replace Susie Wiles as chief of staff from November 9; in his speech, he promised unconditional loyalty to Trump.

The presidential allusions to an intervention in Cuba had antecedents in May 2026, when Trump proposed that the United States could take control of the island after operations against Iran. On that occasion, he imagined the USS Abraham Lincoln located about 100 yards from the Cuban coast and argued that such a demonstration would cause the surrender of the authorities. In September, in New York, he incorporated Rubio into the scenario and suggested disembarking him from an aircraft carrier.

On October 23, before a rally in Fort Myers, Trump described U.S. ships about 50 yards from Cuba and attributed to his secretary the task of finalizing an agreement. Then, on October 27, he introduced the image of the parachute in Corpus Christi, Texas. There he invited Rubio to the stage to applause and assured that he could solve the Cuban situation in about 15 minutes.

Rubio had expressed his own position on Cuba's future on Oct. 26, when he spoke to reporters and defended the need for a profound transformation on the island. In making that assessment, he distinguished Cuba's case from the Venezuelan political process, in a separate intervention from the humorous scenes Trump has used to describe his possible role.