“Some of the European countries, like Spain, were terrible. In truth, I told Scott (to the Minister of Trade Bessent, note red.) to cut off all trade,” said Trump after meeting with the German chancellor, according to the Spanish newspaper El País.
For Trump, not providing the bases was obviously the last straw. According to the head of the White House, Spain is the only country that refused to increase its defense budget to five percent of GDP.
“It all started when all the European countries did what they were supposed to do at my request, which was to contribute 5 percent. Everyone was excited – Germany, everyone – except Spain. And now Spain said we can’t use their bases, and that’s a little…” Trump paused.
“We could use their bases if we wanted to. We can fly there and use them. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use them. We don’t have to. But they were hostile, so I told them we didn’t want them. Spain has absolutely nothing to interest us except its people, who are wonderful. They have wonderful people,” he added.
Subsequently, he repeated that Spain is “the only NATO country that refuses to raise tariffs (sic!) to 5 percent”. And he added that the country wants to keep its defense budget at two percent, but it is not even fulfilling that. “Then we will cut off all trade with them. We don’t want anything to do with them,” he concluded.
The government in Madrid refused to provide the American army with its bases for the attacks on Iran, which have been going on since Saturday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in turn, said that the British Air Force would not be directly involved in the strikes, but Britain made the bases available.
