Trump threatens Spain: ‘We’re going to make them pay twice as much’

Everything was going more or less smoothly at a very delicate NATO summit for Spain — the only country rejecting the demand to increase defense spending to 5% — until Donald Trump spoke and launched a sort of political war against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The U.S. president announced that, as retaliation for Spain’s position at the NATO summit, he will double the planned tariffs on the country: “They’re going to pay, they’ll pay more money this way.”

“You’re the only country that is not paying. I don’t know what the problem is,” said Trump, adding he would negotiate “directly” with Sánchez. “It’s terrible what they’ve done. They’re the only country that won’t pay the full, they want to stay at 2%.”

He added that Spain’s economy is “doing very well, and that economy could be blown right out of the water with something bad happening.”

“You know, we’re going to do, we’re negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We’re going to make them pay twice as much. And I’m actually serious about that.”

Trump didn’t specifically mention the word “tariffs,” but it was clear that’s what he meant — especially with the July 9 deadline fast approaching for the U.S.-imposed tariffs on the entire European bloc, including Spain.

“I like Spain, it’s a great place and they’re great people, but Spain is the only country out of all of the countries that refuses to pay. They want a little bit of a free ride, but they’ll have to pay it back to us in trade, because I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump insisted. In a later statement, he clarified that he would personally lead the trade negotiations. “And then they’ll pay more money this way,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also criticized the Spanish government’s stance in an interview with Politico at the start of the NATO summit at the World Forum. “I don’t think the agreement Spain has reached is sustainable,” said the top U.S. diplomat, suggesting Sánchez’s position was driven by domestic political concerns.

“Spain right now has deep internal political challenges. They have a left-of-center government that basically wants to spend very little to anything on military. And they’ve been recalcitrant,” Rubio said. “It’s unfortunate. Spain is a country with capability and is a contributor. I mean, they send troops, they’re training troops.”

In The Hague, Spain was in the spotlight because of its refusal to raise defense spending. In images of the summit, Sánchez appeared seemingly isolated. Yet the Spanish prime minister appeared at a press conference looking satisfied, explaining that he had managed to avoid an enormous additional expense that would have jeopardized Spain’s welfare state. He also seized the moment — at a time of extreme political vulnerability due to corruption scandals surrounding close allies — to go on the offensive against opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Sánchez essentially said that if the conservative Popular Party (PP) were in power, Spain would have accepted the U.S. demand that all other European countries have agreed to.

“If we had accepted the 5%, Spain would have had to allocate an extra €300 billion to defense between now and 2035. Where would that come from? From cuts to healthcare and education,” explained Sánchez, who appeared very pleased with the outcome of a summit where, at least in the hallways and in the international press, he has faced significant criticism.

Inside the summit, according to Spanish delegation sources, things were far calmer. No one had explicitly mentioned Spain, except for Lithuania, which thanked Spain for its military presence there. Only Trump made a veiled reference to Sánchez’s resistance. According to the same sources, the U.S. president said: “Most allies are committed to reaching 5%. Not all. I don’t understand why.” But then, in his press conference, he launched two direct and harsh attacks on Sánchez.

In reality, aside from Trump — who went on an all-out tirade against Spain — most countries seem to consider that Sánchez’s signing of the joint declaration is good enough. They haven’t raised objections to the separate deal struck between Sánchez and Dutch Prime Minister Rutte that allows Spain to commit only to 2.1%, not 5%.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has pledged to meet the 5% goal despite her country’s more fragile finances, with higher debt and deficit, joked when asked why she hadn’t followed Sánchez’s example: “Italy did the same thing as Spain. Or Spain did the same thing as Italy, take your pick. We signed the same document,” she laughed.

The distance between Trump and Sánchez was starkly evident at the NATO summit. They didn’t even exchange greetings, as Sánchez himself acknowledged. The Spanish leader maintains it was not intentional, but in reality, he avoided the possibility of greeting Trump by sitting down quickly. Sánchez chose to express his rejection of Trump’s demand in writing — via his exchange of letters with Rutte — but avoided a public clash and kept his distance from most leaders while the cameras were rolling.

“I didn’t have the chance to greet him [Trump] or exchange a few words. But all member states are aware of Spain’s reliability and commitment to NATO,” Sánchez insisted. Responding to Trump’s remarks on Tuesday, in which he said Spain was a “problem” for NATO’s agreement, Sánchez countered: “Spain is always the solution, never the problem.”

“After this summit, NATO wins, Spain wins, and security and the welfare state win,” said the Spanish prime minister. “NATO is united and comes out of this summit stronger in the face of the challenges confronting Europe and the transatlantic relationship.”

In light of doubts from several leaders — and from Spain’s opposition — who believe Sánchez will eventually be forced to meet the 5% target, the prime minister read aloud a letter from Rutte: “The declaration we approved today gives Spain the flexibility to determine its own path to achieving its capability goals and to define the annual resources required as a percentage of GDP — this is very clear,” he explained.

Everyone now seems eager to move past the controversy with Spain — including Rutte himself, who expressed confidence that Spain is “serious” about its spending commitment, despite still arguing that it doesn’t need to reach the 3.5% set in The Hague to meet its agreed military capability goals.

“Spain thinks they can achieve those targets with 2.1% spending. NATO is absolutely convinced that Spain will have to spend 3.5% to get there,” said Rutte. “So we will see, and anyway, there will be a review in 2029.”

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