President Donald Trump concluded a weekend in Palm Beach marked by a visit to a dentist, urging Cuba’s communist government to make a “deal” and then a change in route to Palm Beach International Airport after a “suspicious object” was spotted.
The president departed South Florida in the evening after the route to the airport was altered for security reasons.
“During advance sweeps of PBI Airport, a suspicious object was discovered by USSS,” a statement from White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who traveled with the president during his stay, said. “A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted according.”
No other details were given.
During his weekend, Trump issued just one post on the political conflagration in Iran, where by late Jan. 11 roughly 500 anti-government protesters had been killed, according to a human rights group. Trump had warned Tehran at the start of year, while at Mar-a-Lago, to refrain from a violent crack down saying U.S. were “locked and loaded.”
On Jan. 10, however, he was far more restrained in his wording.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” Trump wrote. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”
Aboard Air Force One on the flight to Washington the president told reporters he is “getting an hourly report” and was assessing options, including perhaps speaking to Elon Musk about an internet blackout.
“We’re going to make a determination,” he said.
He added: “These are violent — you can call them leaders, I don’t know if they’re leaders. I guess they rule with violence. But we’re looking at it very seriously, the military’s looking at it. And there’s a couple options.”
Neither did Trump weigh in on wholesale European opposition to U.S. interest in Greenland while in Palm Beach. But he told reporters during the flight that if the United States does not take control of the Danish territory, “Russia or China will and I’m not letting that happen.”
Otherwise, his social media focus was on Cuba and Venezuela.
In a post early on Jan. 11, Trump said the Havana regime’s ability to depend on “large amounts” of petroleum and other monetary subsidies from Venezuela was over.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO,” Trump wrote on social media, reiterating a position he first stated during his Jan. 3 press conference in response to a question from The Palm Beach Post. “I strongly suggest they made a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
In response, Cuba’s leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, rejected Trump’s threat saying the island is a free, independent and sovereign nation and “no one dictates to us what to do.”
Trump’s post was applauded by MAGA adherents on his social media platform. One wrote it would be “amazing” if the “almost 7 decades of Castro’s Cuba” could be brought to a conclusion. Another added “wouldn’t it be something” if the communist regime’s ability to survive every U.S. administration since Dwight Eisenhower’s “ended with Trump.”
In response to a post predicting Secretary of State Marco Rubio “will be president of Cuba,” Trump added: “Sounds good to me!”
Aboard Air Force One, Trump did not reveal details of what the framework of a deal, presumably with the Díaz-Canel government, would be.
“You’ll find out very soon,” he told reporters. “And one of the things I want taken care of — one of the groups I wanted taken care of are the people who came from Cuba … Most importantly right now, we’re going to take care of the people who came from Cuba that aren’t American citizens who are in our country.”
A day earlier, Trump claimed in one missive that he is “already making Venezuela rich and safe again.” In another, he lauded the new regime in Caracas for releasing political prisoners.
“I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done,” Trump wrote. “I HOPE THEY NEVER FORGET! If they do, it will not be good for them.”
Aboard Air Force One on his way back to Washington, at about 8:45 p.m., Trump posted a picture of himself on Truth Social calling himself the acting president of Venezuela.
He also told reporters he would keep Exxon-Mobile “out of it” when it came to a deal on petroleum development because he “didn’t like their response” during a White House meeting on Jan. 9.
“They’re playing too cute,” he said.
During the meeting Trump hosted, the conglomerate’s CEO, Darren Woods, told the president that the Venezuelan market is “uninvestable.” He said there would need to be “some pretty significant changes” before Exxon re-entered the Venezuelan industry.
During the weekend, Trump was also vocal on other topics.
He endorsed Republican John Maples, a candidate in the Jan. 13 special primary election for Florida House District 87, located in Palm Beach County.
The president also urged the NFL’s New York Giants to hire John Harbaugh, who was fired as head coach by the Baltimore Ravens after the conclusion of the NFL regular season.
Trump’s normal weekend routine in the Palm Beaches was disrupted Saturday, Jan. 10 when he went to a see a dentist in Palm Beach Gardens rather than his West Palm Beach area golf club. The White House simply explained the president “is going to a scheduled dental appointment at his local dentist in Florida.” No explanation was given for the almost two-hour visit.
That same day several hundred protesters, upset with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions inside and outside of Home Depot stores, staged a rally outside of one in suburban Boca Raton, asking the national chain to stop cooperating with the federal agency. The protest was one of many across the U.S. on Jan. 10 taking issue with some aspect of Trump’s efforts to enforce laws against immigrants in the U.S. without documentation.
Trump spent Sunday, Jan. 11 at Trump International Golf Club. He returned to the Mar-a-Lago just after 3 p.m. Then, at 7:06 p.m. the White House issued the advisory about PBIA and the motorcade route.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump in Palm Beach posts that Rubio as Cuba president ‘sounds good to me’
Reporting by Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
