Trump says at NATO summit he has ordered cutoff of US trade with Spain

ANKARA, July 8 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump stated that he ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade with Spain at the NATO summit on Wednesday, calling Madrid a “terrible partner” in the alliance.

Speaking with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the beginning of the summit in Ankara, Trump said he did not want to do business with Spain.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his disappointment with Spain, which has not accepted NATO’s new defense spending target of 5% of GDP and whose Socialist leadership does not allow the United States to use its territory’s airspace or bases for the Iran war.

“Spain does not accept anything and you should not carry these things,” Trump told Rutte.

“I don’t want to do any business with them, okay?” Turning to Bessent, he said: “Yes, sir.”

“Take it right away, don’t even talk to them. They’re hopeless. They’re bad people,” he added. “They’re making a lot of money with us, and we’ll see them making a lot less. I don’t want to do business with them.”

The United States has two major military bases in Spain: Naval Station Rota and Moron Air Base.

An internal Pentagon email outlined options for the United States to punish NATO allies it believed were not supporting U.S. operations in the war with Iran; this includes removing Spain from the alliance, which is a US sanction. the official told Reuters in April.

(Reporting by: Humeyra Pamuk and Gram Slattery; Written by: Tuvan Gümrükçü and Sabine Siebold; Edited by Andrew Gray)