ANKARA, July 8 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday at a NATO summit he had ordered his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade with Spain, calling Madrid a “terrible partner” in the alliance.
Trump, speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the start of the summit in Ankara, said he wanted no business with Spain.
Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Spain, which has not agreed to NATO’s new defence spending target of 5% of GDP and whose Socialist leadership refused to let the U.S. use its airspace or bases on its territory for the Iran war.
“Spain doesn’t agree to anything, and you shouldn’t carry them,” Trump told Rutte.
“I don’t want to do any trade with them, alright?” he said, turning to Bessent, who replied: “Yes, sir.”
“Take it immediately, Don’t even talk to them. They’re hopeless. They’re bad people,” he added. “They make so much money with us, and we’re going to see that they make a lot less. I want no business with them.”
The United States has two important military bases in Spain: Naval Station Rota and Moron Air Base.
An internal Pentagon email outlined options for the United States to punish NATO allies it believes failed to support U.S. operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from the alliance, a U.S. official told Reuters in April.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Gram Slattery; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Sabine Siebold; Editing by Andrew Gray)
