U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to “cut off” all trade with Spain after the socialist-led country refused to allow the American military to use its bases to strike the Islamist regime in Iran during Operation Epic Fury.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, President Trump vented his frustration with some European allies, including the United Kingdom and Spain.
“Spain has been terrible,” Trump said. “In fact, I told [Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent] to cut off all dealings with Spain.”
On Saturday, Spain was also the lone country in Israel to publicly criticise the United States and Israel taking military action against Iran, with Sánchez saying that it represented “an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order.”
In addition to criticising the strikes, Madrid also refused to grant the United States access to its military bases, reportedly forcing American Air Force assets to leave the country and relocate to other bases in Europe over the weekend. While the UK has since walked back a similar stance, Spain has held firm.
President Trump joked that the U.S. could have used their bases anyway, saying: “We can just fly in and use it, nobody’s going to tell us not to use it. But they were unfriendly.”
“Spain has absolutely nothing that we need, other than great people; they have great people, but they don’t have great leadership,” President Trump continued. “We are going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
President Trump said he believes the recent Supreme Court decision on tariffs means his presidential powers include the authority to impose embargoes, which he said he will consider imposing on Spain.
President Trump said that his displeasure with Madrid started last year when Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sáchez’s government became the only EU ally to refuse to increase NATO defense spending to five per cent of GDP from the previous standard of two per cent, which Spain also regularly fails to meet.
German Chancellor Merz backed Trump on this, saying that he and fellow European leaders are “trying to convince Spain to catch up” to the 5 per cent agreed to by NATO.
“Spain is the only one who is not willing to accept that, and we are trying to convince them that this is a part of our common security that we all have to comply with this,” Merz said.
The stance against strikes on Iran taken by Spain has won the socialist government some plaudits, however, including from arch globalist Alex Soros, the Democrat mega-donor son of Hungarian billionaire George Soros, who said on Monday that “Spain is becoming the leader of the free world!”
