President Donald Trump said Tuesday he may cut off trade with Spain over its lack of support for the U.S. strikes on Iran.
“Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain,” Trump said during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday, referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“We’re going to cut off trade with Spain,” Trump added. “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
Trump’s comments came after Spain’s government refused on Monday to allow the U.S. military to use its bases, saying that the conflict with Iran violated international law. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sànchez has taken a harder stance against the war than many allies, who have broadly supported U.S. actions while calling on talks between the U.S. and Iran to resume.
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“Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases, and that’s all right,” Trump said. “We could use their base if we want — we could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it, but we don’t have to. But they were unfriendly, and so I told them, we don’t want to.”
Trump showed additional frustration toward the UK and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said after the strikes that the British government “does not believe in regime change from the skies” and previously declined Trump’s demand to back out of an agreement for the island Diego Garcia.
“I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative,” Trump said. “This is not the age of Churchill.”
Both Trump and Merz were critical of Spain during the public portion of their meeting. Spain has rejected proposals to increase its NATO spending to 3 or 3.5% of total GDP for military and another 1.5% for military infrastructure. Spain currently dedicates 1.3% of its GDP toward military spending.
NATO leaders will have their next summit in June, where burden-sharing is expected to dominate the agenda.
“Spain is the only one who’s 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 number,” Merz said.
It’s not yet clear what Trump’s trade threats against Spain would mean in practice. The White House did not immediately provide further information about the nature or specifics of the potential stoppage.
Trump said he would be able to do so despite a recent Supreme Court ruling against his sweeping tariffs implemented last year.
“I could tomorrow stop, or today — even better, stop everything having to do with Spain, all business having to do with Spain,” Trump said.
The U.S. imported more than $22 billion in imports from Spain in 2024.
“Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people,” Trump said. “They have great people, but they don’t have great leadership.”
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