President Donald Trump is on board with installing one of his top goons as Cuba’s president.
Trump, 79, backed the idea of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 54, becoming the leader of the North American country that his parents immigrated from in the late 1950s.
The president went on a Cuba-inspired Truth Social posting spree early Sunday morning after conservative columnist Marc Thiessen wrote in a post on X: “The Cuban regime has survived every president since Eisenhower. Wouldn’t it be something if that streak ended with Donald Trump?”
“Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba. 😂” one user replied.
The idea appeared to tickle Trump, who reposted it on his profile, writing: “Sounds good to me!”
“Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!” he wrote in another post.
“Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT,” he added.
The White House and the State Department did not immediately return a request for comment on Sunday.
Rubio underwent a dramatic transformation from bitter Trump foe to one of the president’s most trusted aides. He is concurrently secretary of state, national security adviser, and acting U.S. archivist. He also briefly took the helm of the U.S. Agency for International Development last year as the Trump administration worked to dismantle the global aid agency.
His myriad high-profile roles have made him the butt of the joke within and outside the Trump administration—but he’s been happy to cash in on the clout.
Last week, Rubio quipped in a post on X that he was not being considered as a candidate for the vacant head coach and general manager positions at the Miami Dolphins, his home team.
“I do not normally respond to online rumors but feel the need to do so at this moment,” he joked. “While you never know what the future may bring right now my focus must remain on global events and also the precious archives of the United States of America. Thank you.”
But Rubio leading Cuba may not be as far-fetched as him running a football team. Trump, after all, put him in charge of Venezuela after the U.S. launched air strikes to seize the autocrat Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Shortly after the U.S. took control of Venezuela, Rubio issued a stark warning for one of its closest allies in the region.
“In some cases, one of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba,” Rubio previously said in a press conference. “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”
The declaration could put Rubio’s 2028 ambitions at stake. Republican strategist Mike Madrid told Politico that while many Latinos in the GOP are impressed with Rubio, some operatives are waiting to see what becomes of his latest foreign policy assignment.
“What may look like the president knighting him as a sort of competent successor may actually, in fact, be him carrying all the weight of the unpopular actions of the president in a couple of years,” Madrid said. “There’s a greater likelihood of that than not.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Cuba’s location.
