President Donald Trump campaigned in Fort Myers, Florida, on Friday, October 23, holding a 90-minute rally at Florida Gulf Coast University's Alico Arena in support of Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor, days ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
The Cuba remarks came in response to a shouted question from the crowd about the island nation. "We'll take care of Cuba on our way back from Iran," Trump said. "Actually, what we're going to do with Cuba is we're going to come back from Iran. Those beautiful ships will pass Cuba. We'll have one of them stop about 50 yards off the coast. They'll raise up their hands. And then we're going to send (Secretary of State) Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal."
"We can just leave him there, and he'll handle it. He's a great guy," Trump added of Rubio.
Trump first floated the idea of stopping a U.S. warship off Cuba on the way back from Iran earlier this year. In May, he suggested sending the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to stop about 100 yards off the Cuban coast, and he revisited the joke during a September summit in New York, saying he could take Rubio to Cuba on an aircraft carrier and leave him there to "sort out the rest."
Rubio, the former Florida senator now serving as secretary of state, has been handling much of the administration's Cuba portfolio. His parents immigrated from Cuba. Trump won 68 percent of the Cuban-American vote in Florida in the 2024 election, and Cuban Americans are a potent voting bloc in the state.
The rally was part of Trump's final midterm blitz in largely friendly territory. AP reported that voters have expressed concern about the impact the nearly eight-month-old U.S. war with Iran has had on the prices of goods from gas to groceries.