US President Donald Trump said today at a NATO summit that he had ordered his Treasury Secretary Scott Besant to suspend 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, Reuters reports.
Trump has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with Spain, which has not agreed to NATO's new defense spending target of five percent of GDP, and whose socialist leadership has refused to allow the United States to use its airspace or bases on its territory for a war with Iran.
"Spain is not agreeing to anything and you shouldn't be carrying them on your back," Trump told Rutte.
“I don’t want any trade with them, okay?” he said, turning to Besant, who replied, “Yes, sir.”
"Do it now. Don't even talk to them. They're hopeless. They're bad people," he added. "They make so much money off us, and we're going to make sure they make a lot less. I don't want any business with them."
The United States has two important military bases in Spain: the Rota Naval Base and the Moron Air Base.
An internal Pentagon email outlined options for the United States to punish NATO allies it deems have 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.
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