Trump Furious Over Spain's Ban on Using Its Bases, Threatens to Take Action
US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut trade with Spain after the Spanish government barred US aircraft from using its military bases to strike Iran. Spain also objected to increases in defence funding as part of NATO.
‘Spain is very bad,’ Trump told reporters when meeting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
‘We will cut all trade with Spain. We do not want to have anything to do with Spain,’ Trump said, as reported by Al Arabiya and AFP, on Wednesday (4 March 2026).
Spanish government has condemned the war waged by the US and Israel against Iran. Spain also banned the US from using joint bases on its territory to attack Iran.
Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles, as cited by Politico, on Tuesday (3 March 2026), said the US pulled its aircraft from bases in Spain after Madrid banned the use of those bases to attack Iran.
Robles, at a press conference at Armilla Air Base on Monday (2 March), asserted that missions involving bases in Spain must ‘operate within the framework of international law’. She added that military facilities in Spain would be prohibited ‘from providing support unless humanitarian considerations require it’.
FlightRadar24 flight-tracking site recorded more than a dozen US aircraft, including KC-135 air-to-air refuelling tankers made by Boeing, leaving Moron Air Base and Rota over the weekend. Seven US military aircraft were detected relocated to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Robles said the US ‘likely took such steps because they knew the aircraft could not operate’ from Spanish territory.
The 1953 agreement between Spain and the US gives Madrid the right to determine how American troops stationed on its territory are used.
Robles emphasised that bases in Spain did not participate in the attack on Iran on Saturday (28 February) and would not be used for ‘maintenance and support’ operations. She added that Spain’s policy on base use does not reflect support for the Iran regime, which she described as ‘horrific and dictatorial’.
‘The solution could never involve the use of violence,’ she cautioned.