Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) on Tuesday said that President Trump’s actions and threats toward other countries may “come back to bite” the U.S. down the road.
“Donald Trump thinks he can bully himself around the world and take over this country or that country or whatever country he wants,” McGovern told host Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power.”
The Massachusetts Democrat’s remarks came in response to a clip of the president saying he will “have the honor of taking Cuba” amid negotiations between officials from the U.S. and the Caribbean island.
“That’s going to come back to bite us in the rear end, quite frankly,” McGovern continued. “And it’s a really dangerous precedent. I can only imagine what China and Russia are thinking right now.”
Trump has threatened Cuban President Manuel Díaz-Canel and his regime repeatedly in recent weeks, and his administration has cut off its oil supply from Venezuela, Cuba’s main source of energy.
The island nation of roughly 11 million people suffered a total blackout on Monday, but energy officials said Tuesday evening that the country had partially reconnected its power grid.
McGovern, though, said the people of Cuba should determine their future, not Trump or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who has long called for the toppling of the regime.
“He talks about turning Cuba into a U.S. client state,” McGovern said of the president. “Imagine being a Cuban and hearing that. Basically, that the United States will take over and you do whatever Donald Trump tells you to do.”
Trump has targeted Cuba amid the U.S. and Israeli military operation in Iran, which began on Feb. 28. Though officials in the nation have vowed to fight back.
It also comes over two months after American forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro after months of escalating tensions. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, now face drug-trafficking and weapons-related charges in the U.S.
Those actions, McGovern said, will embolden China and Russia to further threaten regional neighbors.
“China is probably saying, ‘Hey, you know what? Now’s the time. Now’s a good time for me to go in and take over Taiwan,’” he added Tuesday. “Russia is saying, ‘Don’t talk to me about Ukraine. Because, I mean, you’re going into Venezuela, you’re going into Iran, you’re going into now Cuba.’”
