Trump Furious at NATO Giant, Severs All Trade Ties

US President Donald Trump has surprisingly announced that he has ordered a total severance of all trade relations with Spain. The drastic measure was conveyed directly by Trump to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent while speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday (8/7/2026). On that occasion, Trump openly launched a scathing critique, labelling Madrid as a very poor partner within the defence alliance. He asserted that he no longer wished to engage in any form of economic cooperation and instructed his staff to execute the policy immediately without further negotiation with the Spanish side. “Spain doesn’t agree to anything, and you shouldn’t keep carrying them,” Trump stressed to Rutte at the start of the alliance’s summit meeting. “I don’t want to do any trade with them, understand?” Trump continued as he turned to give instructions to Bessent, who responded with compliance. Trump added that Spain had reaped excessive financial benefits from bilateral trade relations with the US, leading him to resolve to drastically cut that income. He assessed that the country was beyond hope for cooperation. “Execute that immediately, don’t talk to them. They have no hope, they are bad people,” Trump concluded in his harsh statement to halt all business with Madrid. This unilateral decision is the culmination of a series of frustrations from Washington towards Spain’s socialist leadership, which has consistently rejected NATO’s new defence spending target of 5% of GDP. Beyond the budget issue, Madrid also provoked the White House’s anger by refusing to grant permission for the US military to use Spanish airspace or military bases during the war against Iran. Notably, the US operates two highly strategic military bases in the matador country, namely Naval Station Rota and Moron Air Base. According to leaked internal Pentagon emails in April, the US had reportedly drafted a number of sanction options to punish NATO allies deemed to have failed to support US military operations, including the discourse of freezing Spain’s membership status in the alliance.