After Venezuela and Iran, Cuba? Trump says ‘it looks like I’ll be the one that does it’

President Donald Trump on Thursday said past U.S. presidents have mulled intervening in Cuba for decades, but “it looks like I’ll be the one that does it.” He’d suggested the opposite a day earlier, however, saying further escalation isn’t necessary after federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are expected to abandon a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and Trump’s ballroom on Thursday. And Trump’s plan to build a triumphal arch in Washington is getting a second look from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency that suggested changes before it approved the concept last month.

Trump, facing a Senate Republican mutiny, says, ‘I don’t need money for the ballroom’

Trump, facing a Senate Republican mutiny, says ‘I don’t need money for the ballroom’

Asked about Senate Republicans dropping a proposed $1 billion for White House security and his ballroom project, Trump said, “I’m making a gift of the ballroom.”

Trump says the ballroom will be paid for by himself and donors – though much about its financing remains mysterious.

Trump drew distinctions between the ballroom and proposed White House security improvements. He said the ballroom was being built “in conjunction” with the military and the Secret Service and that “a tremendous amount” of the project “is for national security.”

The president also said that the changes were “not for me because I’ll be gone,” even though he’s repeatedly mused about remaining in office after his term.

Trump says he hopes to finish his revamp of the Reflecting Pool by Independence Day

Trump says he hopes to finish his revamp of the Reflecting Pool by Independence Day

“The key is to have it done before July 4,” the president said. “We want to see if we can have it done before July 4.”

The president has spent weeks promising to improve the Reflecting Pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. He says the project has been delayed by rain and other factors, but when completed, “It will be something special.”

In the meantime, a Washington-based nonprofit has sued, attempting to force the Trump administration to stop work on the Reflecting Pool and restore historic elements.

Trump returns to more definitive tone on controlling Iran’s uranium

Last week, Trump suggested that he might be OK with some 970 pounds of highly enriched uranium believed to be buried beneath Iranian nuclear facilities that were targeted by U.S. military strikes last year remaining entombed under those sites.

But speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump reverted to a more definitive tone about the U.S. taking control of the uranium as part of any potential peace agreement with Iran.

“We will get it. We don’t need it. We don’t want it,” Trump said. “We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it.”

Last week, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity he’d “just feel better if I got” the uranium, but that “it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else.”

Trump says he didn’t like the AI executive order he was supposed to sign

President Donald Trump called off a Thursday signing ceremony for a new order on artificial intelligence because he worried it could dull America’s edge on AI technology.

Trump said he was postponing the signing because he didn’t like what he saw in the order’s text. He announced the change hours before the event was scheduled to take place in the Oval Office.

“We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated Oval Office event.

Trump suggests U.S. presidents have mulled intervening in Cuba for decades but ‘it looks like I’ll be the one that does it’

“Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump told reporters during an unrelated environmental event in the Oval Office, when asked Thursday about Cuba. “And, it looks like I’ll be the one that does it. So, I would be happy to do it.”

He added that the U.S. wants to open Cuba “up to Cuban Americans, where they can go back and help.”

Trump didn’t answer questions about the aircraft carrier Nimitz having reportedly entered the southern Caribbean on Wednesday. Nor did he clarify exactly what he meant.

Still, the president’s comments deviated from Wednesday, when the president was asked about a possible U.S. escalation in Cuba and suggested one wasn’t coming.

He called Cuba a failed country and said, “They don’t have electricity. They don’t have money. They don’t........

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