Trump: I’d open a hotel in Cuba

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/21/16 6:03 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday evening expressed openness to expanding his self-branded line of hotels into Cuba.

“I would, I would,” the real estate developer said during an interview on CNN’s “Situation Room,” adding, “at the right time, when we’re allowed to do it. Right now, we’re not.”

{mosads}”I would do it on the basis that you get a 49 percent interest, because right now you get a 49 percent interest,” Trump added. “Nobody even knows what the economics are or what they’re going to do.”

Trump has largely expressed agreement with the Obama administration’s moves to reestablish diplomatic relations with the isolated nation, where Obama is visiting during a historic trip.

Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro spoke during a joint press conference in Havana earlier in the day Monday, as U.S. officials seek to push for a continued focus on human rights in Cuba amid normalized diplomatic relations.

“Maybe it won’t work out, but I will tell you, I think Cuba has a certain potential and I think it’s OK to bring Cuba into the fold,” Trump said on CNN, adding, “but you have to make a much better deal.”

He then alluded to his argument that arose during a GOP debate earlier this month when he was mocked after claiming that the Cuban government wanted “reparations for years of abuse by the United States.”

“You don’t want to be sued in a year from now or two years from now for $4 trillion because they said we destroyed Cuba,” Trump said on CNN. “It has to be part of the deal.”

Tags Cuba Cuba-United States relations Donald Trump