Weeks after a landmark trade agreement with the European Union was ratified, President Donald Trump threatened one of the trade bloc’s member states and ordered the United States federal government to “cut off all trade.”
At the NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday, Trump spoke alongside Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, telling attendees and press that the country has been a “terrible” partner in NATO, as its government refuses to raise its defense spending to 5 percent of the country’s total GDP at the Trump administration’s request. Rutte said that Spain has upped its contribution to 2 percent as a direct result of Trump’s influence. Nonetheless, Trump referred to Spain as “a wasted cause.”
“We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” the president said. Trump reportedly instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop U.S. trade with the country.
The incendiary remarks fly in the face of the recently completed Turnberry agreement, which was stuck last summer by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The deal barely eked past the July 4 finish line as it was mired in months of debate between European leaders and parliament following the invalidation of Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs in February.
The Supreme Court decision caused several U.S. trade partners to put pending trade deals on ice due to uncertainty over the future of the administration’s tariff regime, which was the foundation of negotiations.
Spain’s government, for its part, took a measured approach to addressing Trump’s latest threat. During a media briefing later on Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters that he and Trump had had a constructive and positive conversation after Trump issued his threat to cut off relations.
“I had the chance to have an informal chat with the president of the United States,” he said. “There was absolutely no tension of any kind.”
Meanwhile, the European Commission was swift in its defense of Spain—and the trade deal that was painstakingly finalized on June 25.
“The commission will ensure that the interests of the European Union and all its member states are fully protected,” European Commission trade spokesman Olof Gill said.
Gill added that the Commission would press on in advocating for “stable, predictable and mutually beneficial” trade relations between the U.S. and Europe.
