President Donald Trump is angry at Spain, and it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with their current World Cup run.
According to The Daily Beast, Trump “erupted” at this week’s NATO summit over Spain’s reluctance to ramp up military spending.
“Trump has called on NATO members to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of their annual GDP by 2035, but Spain is the sole NATO member yet to sign up to that target—a decision Trump called ‘terrible,'” the Beast said. Spain also refused to allow its bases to be used in the Iran military operation.
Trump therefore took shots at Spain during a press conference with the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, at the summit in Turkey.
.@POTUS: “Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore by the way… Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain.” pic.twitter.com/3prqux6p54
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 8, 2026
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“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” Trump said. “Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. I don’t want to have anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits… Watch them come running back.”
“We don’t have to trade with them. I don’t want to do any more trade with them, alright? Immediately. Don’t talk to them, they’re hopelessly bad people,” Trump continued. “Let’s see how hostile they remain when they call up and they, ‘Please, please. We want to trade with you, sir. We want to trade with you, sir.’ 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.”
Rutte responded, per the Beast, that “You got Spain to pay 2 percent. They spent, they made a huge step in last year.”
The Beast noted that Trump had made similar threats to Spain before, without following through, and also that Spain is not especially dependent on trade with the U.S.
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
