In a decisive move, U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, to completely halt all trade operations with Spain. This action was prompted by Trump’s discontent with Spain’s blatant disregard for the NATO alliance and his belief that they have been “terrible” allies.
President Trump made the announcement to suspend trade with Spain during discussions with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey on Wednesday. Trump has long prioritized revitalizing NATO by encouraging its European members to adopt a stronger stance against aggression in the Euro-Atlantic region. During the summit, Trump reiterated his demand for improved performance from member countries, emphasizing that their current efforts remain insufficient.
In addition to revealing the end of the ceasefire with Iran following Tehran’s untrustworthy behavior, Trump also criticized Denmark for its stance on Iceland. However, he reserved his strongest words for Spain, declaring an end to tolerance for what he termed as Spain’s poor commitment to NATO. Spain, under a socialist government, was described by Trump as the least performing major NATO member, reluctant to move away from extensive welfare policies in favor of adequate defense spending.
Trump pointed out that Spain not only resisted NATO’s defense spending target of five percent of GDP, insisting that adhering to a now outdated two percent was sufficient, but also completely refused to support the U.S. in its conflict with Iran. President Trump, addressing Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent during the NATO summit, stated emphatically, “We don’t have to trade with them, and I don’t want any more trade with Spain… implement it immediately, don’t even negotiate with them. They are hopeless, unreliable people.”
Bessent acknowledged the directive with a “yes sir,” while Trump expressed his confidence that Spain would ultimately seek to restore trade relations, predicting they would “come running back.”
Explaining his rationale, President Trump said “Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay… they’re open about it, they’re hostile”. He said the Spanish treated alliance boss Mark Rutte, the former Dutch Prime Minister turned NATO leader who is called a “Trump whisperer” in Brussels for his unfailing ability to keep on the President’s good side, “terribly”.
It isn’t yet clear what form a block on trade will take, and President Trump has threatened to block Spain in the past over their attitude towards the Western alliance. European figures were quick to kick back at the remarks, insisting that, actually, the U.S. can’t block trade with Spain and even if it wanted to, would do more harm to itself in trying.
A spokesman for the European Union called on Washington to “honour its commitments” while Spain insisted it can’t be singled out for an embargo because it’s a member of the Single Market — a questionable assertion at best assuming everyone else in the world has as much belief in the European Union as Brussels does — and . The Spanish spokesman said, reports The Guardian, that they have “no intention” of changing anything of their relationship with the U.S..
They are reported to have said: “…the US has a trade surplus with Spain (meaning it benefits more from this relationship than we do)… the bilateral relationship between the US and Spain is beneficial for both countries”.
While it is certainly true the U.S. exports more to Spain than it imports, it does not necessarily follow that America has most to lose from any temporary suspension in trade. A large proportion of Spain’s imports — skewing the balance of trade — is American energy in the form of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), with buys up a fifth in the past year alone. The United States accounts for a third of all of Spain’s gas imports.
In a country with better energy security this would not matter as much, but Spain has recently demonstrated its extreme instability with a massive power cut starting in their territory taking out electricity to a whole corner of Europe.