Trump says he wants to ‘get Cuba done’ before leaving office

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he wants to “get Cuba done” before he leaves office and that the administration is “watching it very closely.”

“I want to get Cuba done before I leave,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Salem News Channel.

“We are watching it very closely, it’s doing very poorly,” the president said. “It’s essentially a failed, you know, place, nation, whatever you wanna call it.”

He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents are from Cuba, “would love to do it.”

Trump also said he won the Cuban vote by a lot in Florida.

“I’d love to be able to do it for the people, for the Cubans that came and were treated really badly, and they came to America,” he continued.

When asked if he would be OK with the use of military force, the president said he “would certainly consider that.”

Trump has repeatedly suggested that an intervention in Cuba could be on the horizon. Earlier in the week, he said he thought Cuba “will fall fairly soon.”

“Cuba is falling. It’s a failing nation. It’s got an ideology very similar to what the Democrat ideology is, and it’s a failing nation. It’s a communist nation, socialist nation, sort of everything all wrapped in into one,” he said during a press briefing Monday, after a reporter asked if the president still planned on taking Cuba, according to The Hill.

He added that the U.S. will help Cuba “on a humanitarian basis.”

The Trump administration announced another wave of sanctions against Cuba earlier this month that targeted 10 individuals and entities tied to the country’s government, military and oil industry.