'Look at What We Did With Venezuela': Trump Says Cuba's Communist Regime Is 'Not Going to Last Much Longer'

President Trump has a message for the men who still run Havana: your time is almost up.

Asked by Benny Johnson at his Daytona Beach rally on Friday night what the chances are that the Castros will still be in charge of Cuba over the next two years, Trump didn't hedge. "Well, I would say it's not going to last much longer," he said. "Look, it's a failed country. We're going to get people back there very soon."

Then came the line that will get noticed in Havana. "Look at what we did with Venezuela," Trump said. "And it's going to work out very well."

'We have Marco looking at it'

Trump laid out the order of business. "It's something we're going to finish off one, and then we're going to maybe take a look at the other," he said, pointing to Iran, where he said the regime's navy, air force, anti-aircraft defenses and leaders are "gone."

"But we'll finish that off, but we're watching Cuba very closely, and we have Marco looking at it extremely closely," Trump said of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. Trump said it would "work out definitely" within about two and a half years, "even before that, actually."

Johnson posted the exchange Saturday morning. It drew more than 100,000 views within hours.

A regime already charged with murder

Trump's warning doesn't come out of nowhere. On May 20, the Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment charging Raúl Castro, now 94, and five other regime figures over the Feb. 24, 1996 shootdown of two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes. Cuban MiGs fired air-to-air missiles at the Cessnas outside Cuban territory, killing Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.

The charges include four counts of murder and conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, which carry a maximum penalty of death or life in prison. "If you kill Americans, we will pursue you. No matter who you are. No matter what title you hold," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the time.

On Oct. 19, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier secured a state arrest warrant charging Castro with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, with no bond.

Why Venezuela matters

Venezuela is the model Trump keeps pointing to. On Jan. 3, U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and flew him to New York, where he faces the narco-terrorism charges the Justice Department first filed against him in 2020.

Maduro was also a dictator under federal indictment who thought his own country made him untouchable. Raúl Castro is now in the same spot, and the president who went after Maduro just told a Florida audience that Havana's time is running out.