President Donald Trump said Spain agreed to honor a request for increased NATO-related payments after he threatened to stop U.S. trade with the country over its refusal to meet the alliance’s defense spending goal.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump said Spain agreed Wednesday to increase payments tied to NATO after he threatened to halt U.S. trade with the country over its resistance to the alliance’s defense spending goals.
Speaking aboard Air Force One after the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump said Spain had shifted its position only hours after he publicly criticized the government of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop trade with the European country.
“Spain, I will say, I did have issues with Spain, and I still do, but Spain came back all the way today. Spain was very generous today. You know, I told them I’m going to stop trading,” Trump said.
Asked what Spain had done, Trump said the country responded to his demand for additional payments.
“They honored a request for lots of payment — and if they didn’t, we wouldn’t even talk to them,” Trump said.
“They were very bad, they behave very badly, in my opinion,” Trump added.
Trump did not specify what the payments involved, and the Spanish government had not publicly disclosed details of what it agreed to honor at press time. His comments were highlighted in a Rapid Response 47 post after the summit.
Spain’s NATO contributions have been a recurring source of tension between Trump and Sánchez. The Spanish government has repeatedly refused to meet NATO’s target of spending 5% of gross domestic product on defense, saying its 2.1% goal is sufficient to meet its obligations to the alliance.
During the NATO summit Wednesday, Trump described Spain’s government as a “lost cause” and said the United States did not have to continue trading with the country. He also predicted Spain would “come running back.”
Hours later, Trump said that had happened.
Sánchez told reporters at the summit that he had spoken informally with Trump after the U.S. president’s trade halt remarks. According to El Español, the two leaders spoke without tension and discussed soccer and golf.
“We discussed soccer and the World Cup in the United States. It was an informal, casual conversation, completely free of any tension. On the contrary, it was characterized by cordiality and friendliness,” Sánchez said. “It took place after the press conference given by the President of the United States.”
Sánchez said his government learned about Trump’s trade halt instruction from reporters and responded with “calm and patience, and a sense of normalcy too.”
“Because, ultimately, when you step back a bit from these kinds of statements, you see that the relationship between the United States and Spain — socially, culturally, economically, and politically — is very positive,” Sánchez said.
The exchange was also noted in an El País post about Sánchez’s comments at the summit.
Before Trump said Spain had agreed to the payment request, a Spanish government spokesperson reportedly told international outlets that Madrid was responding to the trade halt remarks “calmly and as a matter of course,” while emphasizing the broader U.S.-Spain trade relationship and noting that the United States runs a trade surplus with Spain, according to Swissinfo.
The dispute underscored Trump’s continued pressure campaign inside NATO, where he has pushed member countries to sharply increase defense spending and argued that the United States should not carry a disproportionate share of the alliance’s financial burden.
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