US President Donald Trump said that Washington would stop all trade with Spain after Madrid refused to allow the use of their bases for a military operation against Iran.
The American leader stated this during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House, Censor.NET reports .
Trump’s threat
He said that some European countries helped the US during Operation Epic Fury, including Germany. Trump also praised NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, calling him “great”, and criticized Spain , which he called “terrible”.
“We are going to stop all trade with Spain. We want nothing to do with Spain. There is nothing in Spain that we need,” the US president said, adding that Spain has “great people but bad leaders.”
He said he had told US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant to sever all ties with the country.
Trump also recalled that Spain is the only NATO country that has refused to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. The US president had previously threatened Madrid with trade sanctions over this decision.
“Spain has effectively said we can’t use their bases. We could use their base if we wanted to, we could just fly in and use it. No one is going to tell us not to use it. But we don’t have to, but they were unfriendly,” he added. Джерело: https://censor.net/ua/n3603412
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Spain’s current NATO spending is just 1.2%, not even the 2% called for in NATO rules, and not to mention the new 3.5% + 1.5% agreed to by everyone but them.
Spain could just say this is Trump’s war, not ours, but the further West in Europe, the less they spend on defence.
Regardless of this being Trump’s war or anything about Trump, Spain is or was an ally of the United States of America, not an ally of Trump and Spain should have treated the US as an ally. This also is a critique of the UK as well not allowing g the US to use Garcia air bases. Bad form.