“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore, by the way,” Trump said while seated alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey.
“Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate. They don’t pay,” the president continued. “I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits.”
“Watch them come running back. Oh, they’ll come running back,” he added.
Trump also accused Madrid of treating Rutte “terribly,” telling the NATO chief that he “shouldn’t carry” Spain.
“I mean, you sort of automatically carry Spain because you’re protecting an area,” the president said. “So they probably figured, ‘They have to protect us, right?'”
According to Reuters, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s office said it was treating Trump’s comments as “business as usual” and did not intend to change what it described as Spain’s “excellent” trade relations with the United States.
Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO member countries over their defense spending, urging each member to meet a target of spending 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. The alliance has agreed to increase defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035.
Only five of NATO’s 32 member countries are projected to meet that target this year.
Trump has also criticized NATO members, particularly Spain, over their response to the U.S. war in Iran, arguing that they have not done enough to support U.S. efforts.
“Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing?” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in April. “Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!”
