Secretary of State Marco Rubio shrugged off a question about a picture of him posing in front a map of Cuba on Tuesday, saying he merely thought it would be “good” to do so.
Rubio was asked about the pic while filling in for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday.
About an hour before he stepped to the podium in the press room, U.S. Southern Command posted a picture on X of Rubio shaking hands with Gen. Francis L. Donovan in front of the map.
The Daily Mail reporter Jon Michael Raasch asked him about it, after asking “What did you discuss with South Com about Cuba?”
“I’m not going to tell you what I discussed with South Com,” Rubio said, which made a few reporters chuckle in the press briefing room.
“I mean, Cuba’s in South Com. I was there — our Ambassadors were in from the whole Western Hemisphere — [and] I was addressing them, meeting the general who just took command of South Com,” Rubio explained. “And there happened to be a map of Cuba, and I said it’d be good if we took a picture in front of that map because it’s like the closest thing in South Com to the United States. So there it is.”
He then joked they had maps of other countries, but one of Greenland was not available.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited #SOUTHCOM today and met with Gen. Francis L. Donovan. Their discussions focused on U.S. efforts to counter threats that undermine security, stability and democracy in our hemisphere.
The Secretary attended the 2026 Chiefs of Mission… pic.twitter.com/eKirEOWWhz
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) May 5, 2026
Cuba was a major topic during his press briefing on Tuesday. Rubio ripped Cuba’s leadership for being a bunch of “incompetent communists” earlier in the briefing, saying their economy was on the verge of total collapse because the island was no longer receiving free oil from Venezuela.
His remarks come after President Donald Trump has said he plans on focusing on Cuba after the Iran war. Trump said in March he will soon “be having the honor of taking Cuba.”
“Whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy. “They are a very weakened nation.”
More recently, Trump slapped new sanctions on Cuba. He also said last week the U.S. will be taking over Cuba “almost immediately,” but that he wants to “finish” the Iran “job” first.
Watch above via CNN.
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