Trump vows 'new dawn for Cuba' coming after '70 years in waiting'

President Donald Trump warned on Friday that a "new dawn" is coming for Cuba, arguing that American "strength" would soon deliver change to the island nation after 70 years.

"And very soon, this great strength will also bring about a day, 70 years in waiting. It's called a new dawn for Cuba. We're going to help them out with Cuba," Trump told a crowd at an event in Phoenix, Arizona.

Pointing to Cuban American communities, he claimed they "were brutally treated, whose families were killed and brutalized."

"And now watch what happens," he added.

Cuba has faced a prolonged economic crisis marked by fuel shortages, rolling blackouts and limited access to food and medicine. Cuban officials attribute much of the hardship to decades-long US sanctions, while American officials argue that structural economic issues are to blame.

Trump linked the promise to Cuba to what he described as a recent US military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in early January, and framed his broader foreign policy around an "America First" doctrine.

"It's very simple: we'll help other countries, but we have to view it as America first; otherwise, we're not going to have a country left," he said.

Trump briefly described Venezuela as a new American partner, saying: "Venezuela has been great, really doing a good job over there."

Trump also defended his administration's decision to suspend nearly all refugee resettlement while carving out an exception for white South Africans, claiming there is a "genocide" targeting white people in that country.

"In South Africa, there's a very horrible thing going on. It's a genocide. It's a horrible thing," he claimed, saying they are "killing people if they're white."

Last year, Trump criticized prominent opposition figure Julius Malema during a high-level Oval Office meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling for Malema's arrest for chanting the controversial "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" song, which he said was inciting violence against white farmers in South Africa.

During the meeting, Trump claimed that white farmers in South Africa were being killed and their land confiscated without compensation.

Ramaphosa calmly denied the allegations, saying there was no systematic persecution, murder, or confiscation of land targeting white farmers in his country.