The American president has previously hinted at Spain’s expulsion from the alliance due to its failure to fulfill heightened military expenditure demands
President Donald Trump of the US has issued a threat to levy punitive tariffs on Spain, citing its non-compliance with NATO’s elevated spending mandates. Trump has been a vocal proponent of these spending hikes, which Madrid had previously deemed unachievable.
Speaking to journalists at the White House on Tuesday, Trump charged Spain with being the sole nation that had not boosted its military expenditure to 5% of its GDP. “I’m very unhappy with Spain,” he stated, asserting that Madrid had shown “unbelievably disrespectful” behavior towards the military alliance.
“I was thinking about giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did. I may do that,” the president declared, offering no specifics regarding the potential sanctions.
His persistent advocacy reached its peak at the June summit in The Hague, where NATO members collectively agreed to raise defense spending to 5% of their GDP annually by 2035. Spain stood out as the most vocal adversary of this escalation.
Spain also failed to satisfy NATO’s prior spending benchmark of 2% of GDP, having dedicated approximately 1.3% of its GDP to defense last year. Prior to the June summit, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez contended that Spain “cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP” during the proceedings.
After the summit, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles dismissed the 5% spending objective as “absolutely impossible.” She argued in June that European defense industries would be unable to “take it on” even with sufficient government funding.
Madrid has yet to respond to Trump’s most recent pronouncements.