President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to finish trade with Spain, citing a scarcity of support over the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and the European nation’s resistance to extend its NATO spending.
“We’re going to chop off all trade with Spain,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
The U.S. president’s comments got here a day after Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said his country wouldn’t allow the U.S. to make use of jointly operated bases in southern Spain in any strikes not covered by the United Nations’ charter.
Albares noted that the military bases in Spain weren’t utilized in the weekend attack on Iran.
It’s unclear how Trump would cut off trade with Spain, on condition that Spain is under the umbrella of the European Union. The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of all 27 member countries.
“If the U.S. administration wishes to review the trade agreement, it must accomplish that respecting the autonomy of personal corporations, international law, and bilateral agreements between the European Union and america,” a spokesperson from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s office said Tuesday.
The EU said it expects the Trump administration to honor a trade deal struck with the 27-nation bloc in Scotland last 12 months after months of economic uncertainty over Trump’s tariff blitzkrieg.
“The Commission will at all times be certain that the interests of the European Union are fully protected,” said European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill.
It was just the newest instance of the president wielding the specter of tariffs or trade embargoes as a punishment and got here on the heels of a Supreme Court decision that struck down Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs.
While the court said that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn’t authorize the president to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs, Trump now maintains that the court allows him to as an alternative impose full-scale embargoes on other nations of his selecting.
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Trump also complained anew Tuesday about Spain’s decision last 12 months to back out of NATO’s 5 per cent defence spending goal. On the time, Spain said it could reach its military capabilities by spending 2.1 per cent of its GDP, a move that Trump roundly criticized and responded to with tariff threats as well.
Spain, Trump said, is “the one country that in NATO wouldn’t conform to go as much as 5 per cent” in NATO spending. “I don’t think they agreed to go as much as anything. They desired to keep it at 2 per cent and so they don’t pay the two per cent.”
Merz noted that Trump was correct and said, “We are attempting to persuade them that this is a component of our common security, that all of us need to comply with this.”
Spain defended its position Tuesday, saying it’s “a key member of NATO, fulfilling its commitments and making a big contribution to the defence of European territory,” the spokesperson in Sánchez’s office said.
Throughout the Oval Office meeting, Trump turned to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for his opinion on the president’s embargo authority.
Bessent said, “I agree that the Supreme Court reaffirmed your ability to implement an embargo.” Bessent added that the U.S. Trade Representative and Commerce Department would “begin investigations and we’ll move forward with those.”
A representative from the U.S. Treasury Department didn’t reply to a request from The Associated Press for added comment.
Sánchez has been critical of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, calling it an “unjustifiable” and “dangerous” military intervention. His government has demanded a direct de-escalation and dialogue and in addition condemned Iran’s strikes across the region.
Trump said, “Spain has absolutely nothing that we want aside from great people. They’ve great people, but they don’t have great leadership.”
Spain’s position on the usage of U.S. bases in its territory marks the newest flare-up in its relationship with the Trump administration. Under Sánchez, Europe’s last major progressive leader, Spain was also an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.
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