Trump Threatens Sanctions Against Spain for Defying NATO Spending Demands

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump has warned that Spain could face punitive tariffs for refusing to comply with NATO’s new defense spending target — a policy he personally championed and Madrid has dismissed as unrealistic.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump accused Spain of being the only NATO member that failed to commit to raising its military spending to 5% of GDP. “I’m very unhappy with Spain,” he said, calling Madrid’s stance “unbelievably disrespectful” toward the alliance.

“I was thinking about giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did. I may do that,” Trump added, without specifying what measures might be imposed.

Earlier this month, Trump even floated the idea of expelling Spain from NATO over its refusal to meet the spending target. “They have no excuse not to do this,” he said during talks with Finnish President Alexander Stubb at the Oval Office.

Trump has long accused NATO members of failing to pay their “fair share” for defense, a theme he frequently raised during his first term. Since returning to office in January, he has stepped up demands for European allies to drastically boost military expenditures.

His push culminated at the June NATO summit in The Hague, where members agreed to raise defense spending goals from 2% to 5% of GDP by 2035. Spain, however, emerged as the strongest opponent of the increase, spending just 1.3% of its GDP on defense last year.

Before the summit, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Madrid “cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP.” Following the meeting, Defense Minister Margarita Robles called the 5% benchmark “absolutely impossible”, arguing that European defense industries lacked the capacity to absorb such levels of funding.

So far, Madrid has not issued an official response to Trump’s latest remarks.