Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Cubans seeking political change to partner discreetly with the CIA, while President Trump promised to take care of Cuba.

Rubio posted the message on X on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, telling island residents who want a different future that the moment to act has arrived. The same day, President Donald Trump addressed a midterm rally in Fort Myers, Florida, and said U.S. warships returning from Iran could make a stop near Cuba and that Rubio could finish the job.

Fox News Digital reported that Rubio’s post did not name a specific operation or spell out what cooperation would look like. It did make the invitation plain.

Rubio wrote:

"To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba, now is the time,"

He continued:

"The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA."

The son of Cuban immigrants and a former Florida senator has long pressed for a harder U.S. line toward the government in Havana. He has opposed normalizing relations without political reforms. As secretary of state, that record now sits inside the administration’s foreign-policy portfolio, alongside moves such as sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court.

Trump floats a Cuba stop after Iran

At the Fort Myers rally, Trump cast Cuba as unfinished business on a return trip from Iran. He offered no details of any proposed agreement and did not say whether the remarks tracked a formal military or diplomatic plan.

Trump told the crowd:

"Don't worry. We'll take care of Cuba on our way back from Iran with it. We'll do a little stopover now. We'll do a little stopover."

He went further on the ships and the role he sees for his secretary of state:

"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:

"And then we're going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal. We'll have Marco. Marco. We don't even have to stop. We could just put him in there and he'll figure it out. He's a great guy."

The picture was blunt: American vessels off the coast, a short stop, and Rubio tasked with closing whatever deal the president had in mind. Voters who watch Rubio’s broader portfolio have already seen him bar U.S. transactions with the ICC and vow to dismantle it.

No playbook released, agencies silent so far

Fox News Digital reached out to the CIA, the State Department, the White House, and the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment. No replies appear in the reporting. Rubio’s post likewise left the “discrete partnership” undefined, no named program, no channel, no list of tasks.

That gap matters. Cubans reading the secretary’s words get a clear political judgment about failed promises and privileged elites. They do not get an instruction manual. The administration has not filled in the blanks in public.

Rubio’s pattern on other files has been to move first and explain the stakes in plain terms, including visa restrictions aimed at South African nationals over race-based discrimination and land seizures. Cuba sits in the same lane: pressure, not wishful engagement without reforms.

Years of pressure, one public invitation

Rubio has spent years calling out Havana’s leadership and resisting deals that skip political change. The X post turns that critique into an open invitation for Cubans themselves to work with U.S. intelligence. It arrives while Trump is willing to talk about warships within tens of yards of the coast and to put Rubio’s name on the follow-through.

Whether the rally lines reflect an operational plan remains unstated. Whether any Cubans answer the CIA call remains unknown. What is on the record is the pairing: a secretary of state telling reformers the time is now, and a president saying America can handle Cuba on the way home from Iran.

Political watchers already track Rubio’s standing for 2028; one recent survey found he outperforms Vance in nearly every matchup against Democrats. High-profile foreign-policy moments feed that attention. So does the White House’s own habit of spotlighting him, down to a gold-framed birthday collage.

For now, the facts stop at the post, the rally, and the unanswered outreach to the CIA, State, the White House, and the Cuban Embassy. No confirmed operation. No published deal text. No embassy rebuttal in the available account.

Free people should not have to whisper to change their country, and a U.S. administration willing to say so out loud is long overdue.