President Trump turned the final day of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, into a direct confrontation with Spain, threatening to cut off all U.S. trade and even tourism with the country he called "a wasted cause" and "a terrible partner" in the Western alliance. The remarks, delivered publicly on Wednesday, marked the sharpest economic threat Trump has aimed at a NATO member state, and they landed on a country that is both a longtime military host and a significant trading partner.
"Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits," Trump said, as Fox News Digital reported. He added: "They don't participate, they don't pay. I don't want anything to do with Spain."
The threat came after Spain became the only NATO member to publicly refuse the alliance's new benchmark calling on member nations to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense and defense-related expenditures. It also followed months of friction over Spain's refusal to let the United States use jointly operated bases on Spanish soil for operations against Iran, a decision that put Madrid at odds with Washington during an active military campaign.
The economic stakes are real, even if the legal pathway to a full trade cutoff remains unclear. U.S. Census Bureau data show 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, while importing about $21 billion in pharmaceuticals, machinery, chemicals, food products, and vehicles.
Trump framed the imbalance as leverage. "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.
The president directed his comments at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during the summit. Newsmax reported that Trump ordered Bessent on the spot to act immediately, telling him: "Take it immediately. Don't even talk to them. They're hopeless. They're bad people." Bessent replied, "Yes, sir."
Whether that exchange represented a formal policy directive or a public display of frustration remains an open question. The White House had not immediately provided details on whether the administration is actually preparing trade restrictions targeting Spain. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Spanish Embassy in Washington, with no immediate response from either.
The 5% GDP defense spending target adopted at the Ankara summit represents a dramatic escalation from NATO's previous 2% benchmark, a threshold that itself was a source of friction for years. Spain resisted even the earlier target. The Washington Examiner noted that Spain pushed back against the increase from 2% during last year's NATO summit in The Hague.
To its credit, Spain did increase defense spending from 1.4% of GDP in 2021 to 2.1% in 2025. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte acknowledged the progress at the summit. Breitbart reported Rutte told Trump: "You got Spain to pay 2%. They spent. They made a huge step in last year."
Trump was unmoved. Spain was the lone member that did not commit to the full 5% target by 2035. Instead, Madrid negotiated flexibility in how it would meet NATO capability goals, a diplomatic workaround that apparently satisfied no one in Washington.
The president has made NATO burden-sharing a centerpiece of his foreign policy. Before the Ankara summit, he publicly called the alliance "one sided" and pressed European capitals to do more.
The spending dispute alone might not have produced such a sharp response. But it sits on top of a more concrete grievance: Spain's refusal to allow the United States to use Rota Naval Base and Morón Air Base for offensive operations against Iran under Operation Epic Fury.
Both facilities are jointly operated U.S.-Spanish installations. Spanish officials argued the strikes lacked international legal backing and said the bases could not be used for unilateral military action. Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez went further earlier in 2026, describing the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran as an "extraordinary mistake" and calling for de-escalation.
For a president prosecuting an active military operation, that amounted to an ally pulling the rug out. The strategic significance of those bases, Naval Station Rota is a key hub for U.S. Navy operations in the Mediterranean, makes Spain's refusal more than a symbolic disagreement. It is a practical obstacle during wartime.
Trump has shown a willingness to use troop posture as leverage against allies who fall short. The Pentagon's recent order pulling 5,000 troops out of Germany over defense spending disputes set a precedent that Trump is willing to back rhetoric with action.
Executing a full trade cutoff with Spain would be far more complicated than ordering one. Spain is a member of the European Union, which negotiates trade policy as a customs union. The United States does not maintain a separate bilateral trade agreement with Spain. Any restrictions targeting a single EU member state would run into the bloc's unified trade framework, a legal and diplomatic obstacle the administration has not publicly addressed.
There is also the matter of domestic legal authority. The New York Post reported that a Supreme Court ruling in February 2026 curtailed Trump's authority to impose sweeping tariffs, meaning any long-term trade action would likely face legal challenges. Spain's government, for its part, downplayed Trump's comments and pointed to the EU's role in handling trade relations on behalf of member states.
That doesn't mean the threat carries no weight. Targeted sanctions, export controls, visa restrictions, and other executive tools remain available even when broad tariff authority is constrained. And the political signal alone, a sitting U.S. president publicly telling his Treasury Secretary to cut off a NATO ally "immediately", changes the diplomatic calculus in Madrid whether or not a formal order follows.
Trump himself seemed to anticipate that outcome. "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,'" he said.
The Spain confrontation fits a broader pattern. Trump has repeatedly used economic and military leverage against allies he views as free riders, countries that benefit from American security guarantees while spending far less than Washington on their own defense. The approach has drawn criticism from foreign policy traditionalists who argue it weakens alliance cohesion, but it has also produced results. Multiple NATO members have increased defense budgets in direct response to Trump's pressure campaigns.
The president has shown similar willingness to use political muscle domestically. Trump-backed challengers swept Indiana GOP primaries earlier this year, ousting state senators who blocked his redistricting priorities, a reminder that the president does not draw sharp lines between foreign and domestic leverage.
On Capitol Hill, Trump's legislative agenda has faced its own resistance. Five Republican senators have stood between the president and the SAVE America Act, illustrating that even within his own party, Trump's maximalist approach generates friction.
But the Spain situation is different in kind. This is not a budget negotiation or a primary fight. It is a sitting president publicly repudiating a treaty ally during wartime, at a summit designed to project unity, over that ally's refusal to support American military operations and meet collective defense commitments.
Several questions remain unanswered. Has the White House begun any formal process to restrict trade with Spain, or were Trump's remarks a pressure tactic designed to move Madrid without a formal order? What specific flexibility did Spain negotiate at the summit regarding its defense commitments, and does that flexibility satisfy any NATO members besides Spain itself? And what happens to the two U.S. military installations on Spanish soil if the diplomatic relationship continues to deteriorate?
The status of Sánchez himself adds another layer of uncertainty. Fox News Digital described him as "Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who, until recently, held the office outright", suggesting a domestic political transition in Madrid that could affect Spain's posture going forward.
For now, the trade threat hangs in the air, dramatic, legally uncertain, and diplomatically combustible. But the underlying grievance is straightforward: an ally that won't pay, won't fight, and won't even let you use the bases you built together.
Allies who want the benefits of an alliance without the obligations shouldn't be surprised when the partner footing the bill starts asking what exactly the partnership is for.
