{"id":31225,"date":"2026-05-28T21:51:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/31225\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T21:51:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:51:45","slug":"us-ambassador-to-spain-complains-pm-pedro-sanchez-has-not-received-him-once-yet-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/31225\/","title":{"rendered":"US ambassador to Spain complains PM Pedro S\u00e1nchez has not received him once yet | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf the prime minister of Spain hasn\u2019t received me, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s inviting President Trump.\u201d With those words, U.S. Ambassador to Spain Benjam\u00edn Le\u00f3n Jr. complained that he still has not met with Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a> once, more than three months after taking up his post. Speaking at an event organized by the debate organization Nueva Econom\u00eda F\u00f3rum in Madrid, Le\u00f3n said that the Spanish government has not made any moves to invite the U.S. president.<\/p>\n

Le\u00f3n Jr. also used his first public appearance since arriving in Madrid on February 16 to convey that Trump \u201cis quite frustrated\u201d because in 2025, at The Hague, NATO countries pledged to raise defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP, and Spain is \u201cthe only government that has said it will not fulfill<\/a> what it said it would.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ambassador would not speculate about a possible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Spain, saying that \u201cthe only person who has the power [to make that decision], as commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, is President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did make clear that the source of the deterioration in bilateral ties is Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s refusal to increase military spending to 5% of GDP, without addressing Spain\u2019s refusal to allow use of its bases and airspace<\/a> for U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran, and he stressed that the differences are confined to the governments. \u201cThis is nothing against the Spanish people, it\u2019s against the government,\u201d he said of Trump\u2019s remarks criticizing Spain\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

He also stressed that Spain is \u201can indispensable NATO ally\u201d and that the Rota and Mor\u00f3n bases, where nearly 7,000 U.S. service members and their families are stationed, are \u201cfundamental to our collective defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he has yet to meet with S\u00e1nchez, the ambassador has instead met with Alberto N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o, leader of the mainstream conservative Popular Party (PP), and with Santiago Abascal, head of the far-right Vox, as well as with the leader of the Madrid regional government, Isabel D\u00edaz Ayuso of the PP. Le\u00f3n Jr also presented his credentials to King Felipe VI.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf the prime minister of Spain hasn\u2019t received me, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s inviting President Trump.\u201d With those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190,194,3474,82,205,3207,3205,17,3206],"class_list":["post-31225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-alberto-nunez-feijoo","tag-donald-trump","tag-felipe-vi","tag-madrid","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-pp","tag-santiago-abascal","tag-spain","tag-vox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}