Trump warns Spain with sanctions for failing to meet NATO requirements
(MENAFN) US President Donald Trump has issued a warning to Spain, saying he may impose tariffs in response to Madrid’s continued failure to comply with NATO’s latest defense spending targets, according to reports. The president has been a leading advocate for a steep increase in military expenditures among member states—something Spanish officials had previously dismissed as unfeasible.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump claimed that Spain was the only NATO member that had not boosted its defense spending to 5% of its GDP. “I’m very unhappy with Spain,” he said, accusing the country of being “unbelievably disrespectful” toward the alliance.
“I was thinking about giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did. I may do that,” he stated, though he offered no specifics about the measures being considered.
Earlier this month, the president reportedly suggested expelling Spain from NATO altogether for failing to meet the bloc’s spending goals. “They have no excuse not to do this,” he remarked during a meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb at the Oval Office.
Throughout both of his terms, Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO members for not contributing a fair share toward the alliance’s defense budget. Since returning to office in January, he has renewed pressure on European allies to meet higher spending commitments.
His campaign for greater defense outlays peaked at a NATO summit in The Hague in June, where member nations pledged to raise their annual defense budgets to 5% of GDP by 2035.
Spain stood out as the strongest opponent of the plan.
Reports note that Madrid failed to reach even the previous 2% benchmark, spending only around 1.3% of its GDP on defense last year. Ahead of the June summit, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez maintained that Spain “cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP.”
Following the meeting, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles described the 5% target as “absolutely impossible,” saying that European defense industries lacked the capacity to sustain such an increase “even if governments provided them with enough funding.”
As of now, Spanish officials have not responded publicly to Trump’s latest remarks.
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