President Donald Trump escalated his confrontation with Spain on Wednesday, threatening to sever all U.S. trade with the NATO ally and calling it a "wasted cause" after Madrid stood alone in refusing to commit to the alliance's new 5% defense spending target.
The remarks came during the NATO leaders' summit in Ankara, Turkey, where Trump singled out Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for what he described as a pattern of non-cooperation, on defense budgets, on military basing rights, and on the broader obligations of alliance membership.
The threat puts roughly $47 billion in annual bilateral trade at stake and opens a new front in the administration's pressure campaign against European allies who, in Trump's view, have free-ridden on American security guarantees for decades. Whether the president's words translate into formal policy remains unclear. But the message itself, blunt, public, and personal, landed hard enough that Spain has already reversed course on at least one prior dispute.
Trump's language at the summit left little room for diplomatic ambiguity. Fox News Digital reported a string of statements that amounted to a direct ultimatum:
"We don't want to do any trade business with Spain anymore, by the way. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits."
He went further, framing the dispute as a matter of reciprocity and respect:
"They don't participate, they don't pay. I don't want anything to do with Spain."
And then the prediction, that economic pressure would bring Madrid to heel:
"They're hostile about it, and let's see how hostile they remain when they call up and they, 'Please, please, we want to trade with you, sir.'"
Trump also directed his frustration at Sánchez personally, telling aides he did not want further trade negotiations. "I don't want to do any more trade with him. All right? Take it immediately. Don't even talk to them," he said.
The summit in Ankara came amid rising tensions in the region, with NATO allies under pressure to demonstrate solidarity on both spending and security operations.
The immediate trigger was NATO's new defense benchmark. Alliance leaders backed a target calling on members to invest 5% of gross domestic product in defense and defense-related expenditures, a sharp increase from the previous 2% goal that many allies had already struggled to meet.
Spain was the lone NATO member to publicly reject committing to the full 5% target. Instead, Madrid negotiated flexibility in how it would meet broader capability goals, a diplomatic workaround that Trump clearly viewed as an evasion.
The Washington Examiner reported that Spain does not even meet the previous 2% threshold, making its refusal to commit to the higher target all the more conspicuous. Trump directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade dealings with Spain as punishment, the outlet noted.
Trump's broader push at the Ankara summit to hold allies accountable on defense spending gave the Spain dispute its sharpest edge. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sided with Trump in pressuring Spain to meet the target, according to multiple reports.
Defense spending was only part of the friction. Earlier in 2026, Sánchez condemned the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran as an "extraordinary mistake" and called for de-escalation. Spain then refused to allow the United States to use the jointly operated Rota Naval Base and Morón Air Base to support offensive operations against Iran under Operation Epic Fury.
Spanish officials argued the strikes lacked international legal backing and said the bases could not be used for unilateral military action. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares stated that Spain would not allow the U.S. to use the jointly operated bases in southern Spain for strikes not covered by the UN charter, AP News reported.
Sánchez himself issued a pointed rebuke. The Washington Examiner quoted the Spanish prime minister as saying: "We reject the unilateral military action by the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order."
For an ally hosting American forces on its soil, forces whose presence benefits Spain's own security posture, the refusal to cooperate during active operations struck Washington as more than a policy disagreement. It looked like obstruction.
The tensions around the NATO summit also unfolded against a backdrop of intensive diplomatic activity by the president on multiple fronts.
This is not the first time Trump has used trade threats to force Spain's hand, and the track record suggests the tactic works.
In March 2026, after Spain initially refused base access for strikes on Iran, Trump threatened a total trade embargo. Just The News reported that within hours, Spain reversed course and agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the reversal on March 4, 2026:
"With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president's message yesterday loud and clear. And it's my understanding, over the past several hours, they've agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military. The president expects all of our European allies to cooperate in this long-sought-after mission."
That earlier capitulation makes the current standoff all the more telling. Sánchez evidently concluded that his March concession was sufficient, that he could cooperate on base access while still defying the alliance on defense spending. Trump's response at Ankara suggests he sees the two issues as inseparable.
U.S. Census Bureau data cited by Fox News Digital shows the two countries traded roughly $47 billion in goods in 2025. The United States exported about $26 billion worth of goods to Spain, including energy products, machinery, aerospace equipment, and chemicals. Spain sent about $21 billion in goods the other direction, including pharmaceuticals, machinery, chemicals, food products, and vehicles.
The trade balance actually favors the United States by roughly $5 billion, which means an outright cutoff would hurt both sides, but the asymmetry gives Washington leverage. Spain sells to a market it needs more than that market needs Spain.
Still, executing such a cutoff would face significant legal and diplomatic hurdles. Spain is a member of the European Union, which negotiates trade policy as a customs union on behalf of all 27 member countries. The U.S. cannot simply impose bilateral trade restrictions on a single EU member without running into the bloc's collective trade framework.
A spokesperson from Sánchez's office pushed back on the threat, as Breitbart reported: "If the U.S. administration wishes to review the trade agreement, it must do so respecting the autonomy of private companies, international law, and bilateral agreements between the European Union and the United States."
That response, legalistic, procedural, and notably free of any commitment to increase defense spending, captures the Sánchez government's posture throughout this dispute. Madrid wants the benefits of the alliance without the obligations that sustain it.
The broader pattern of U.S.-NATO tensions over burden-sharing has intensified under Trump's second term, with Spain emerging as the most visible holdout.
Fox News Digital noted it was not immediately clear whether Trump was announcing a formal policy or expressing frustration. The White House had not provided details on whether the administration is actively considering trade restrictions targeting Spain. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Spanish embassy for comment.
The ambiguity may be the point. Trump has repeatedly used the threat of economic consequences, tariffs, embargoes, trade cutoffs, as a forcing mechanism. The March episode with Spain proved the approach can produce rapid results without a single executive order being signed.
But the legal landscape has shifted. AP News and Breitbart both noted that a Supreme Court ruling struck down Trump's broad tariff authority under IEEPA, though Trump now claims the ruling affirms his power to impose full-scale embargoes. That legal question remains unresolved and would almost certainly face immediate challenge if the administration moved to formalize restrictions on Spain.
Sánchez, for his part, faces mounting pressures at home that may explain his willingness to grandstand on the international stage. Picking fights with Washington plays well with his domestic base even as it isolates Spain within the alliance.
The deeper principle at stake is one Trump has hammered since his first term: that the United States cannot indefinitely subsidize the defense of allies who refuse to invest in their own security. The 5% target is ambitious. But Spain's refusal to commit, while simultaneously blocking U.S. military operations from bases on Spanish soil, represents something beyond frugality. It represents a country that wants American protection without American partnership.
Trump's language was characteristically direct. "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," he said.
Whether the trade threat materializes as policy or remains a pressure tactic, the underlying message is clear enough. Allies who treat their obligations as optional should not be surprised when America starts treating the relationship the same way.
