Ana Navarro blasts Marco Rubio for comparing Trump trials to Cuba

Talk show host Ana Navarro slammed Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio for comparing former president Donald Trump‘s hush money trial to “show trials” held when communist leader Fidel Castro took over Cuba.

“How dare you!” Navarro said on Monday’s episode of “The View”. “5,600 Cubans, at least, were shot in front of firing squads. Another 1,200 were shot and died because of extrajudicial hearings. How dare you use their name in vain so you can suck up to this man.”

During an interview on Fox News on Thursday, Rubio said Trump’s trial was “a quintessential show trial” and “what you see in communist countries.” He also called the trial “an effort to interfere in an election.”

Rubio also posted footage from a “show trial” on X and wrote “the public spectacle of political show trials has come to America.”

Trump was found guilty on 34 felony charges on Friday by a jury in New York. Trump is the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, but Republican politicians, including Rubio, are continuing to voice their support.

Navarro attacked Rubio for using the comparison to further his political ambitions.

“I know you want to be his vice president, but don’t you dare use the name of these people who died protecting freedom and compare our U.S. judicial system to what happens in Cuba, what happens in Nicaragua, what happens in Venezuela,” Navarro said.

Navarro then said “you should be ashamed” in Spanish.

Host Whoopi Goldberg stressed the importance of knowing history and that Trump becoming president again is what would create a dictatorship.

“You heard all of these stories, who do you think they were talking about? A dictatorship that ate the country. I don’t understand how you think it’s going to be different,” Goldberg said.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz also compared Trump’s trial to trials in dictatorships. He called the trial “the kind of thing you see in banana republics” on X.

Cruz’s father immigrated to the U.S. in 1957 during the Cuban revolution. Rubio’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba before Castro gained power.

Rubio and Cruz ran against Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Both were previously critical of Trump. After Rubio dropped out of the primary, he called Trump “dangerous” and said he could not be trusted with nuclear secrets. While Cruz was running against Trump, Cruz said the president should be “someone who isn’t springing out of bed to tweet in a frantic response to the latest polls.”