{"id":53221,"date":"2026-07-10T15:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/53221\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T15:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:22:18","slug":"why-donald-trump-keeps-picking-fights-with-spain-and-why-they-dont-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/53221\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Donald Trump keeps picking fights with Spain (and why they don\u2019t care)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We should be used to Donald Trump\u2019s outbursts by now<\/a>, but that doesn\u2019t mean they are any less shocking when they happen. And it was Spain that became the latest focus of his ire this week.<\/p>\n

During the Nato<\/a> summit in Ankara on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at its ally, calling Spain a \u201cterrible partner\u201d<\/a> and \u201ca wasted cause\u201d.<\/p>\n

The president told US trade secretary Scott Bessent to cut trade with Spain<\/a>. \u201cDon\u2019t even talk to them. They\u2019re hopeless. They\u2019re bad people… They make so much money with us, and we\u2019re going to see that they make a lot less,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The remarks came after Trump was enraged by Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government and its refusal to raise defence spending to the US target of 5 per cent of GDP for European allies. But this was just the latest chapter in an ongoing row between the two countries.<\/p>\n

\"TrumpTrump called Spain a \u2018terrible partner\u2019 as a long-term rift between him and the PC Pedro Sanchez has deepened (Getty)<\/p>\n

Madrid\u2019s very public opposition to the US-Israel<\/a> war on Iran and the war in Gaza has been an ongoing issue in the worsening US-Spain relations. Washington and Madrid jointly operate two key military bases in southern Spain for naval and air operations and Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Spain after S\u00e1nchez, a socialist, refused to let the US use its airspace or bases for the Iran war.<\/p>\n

And amid mounting tensions between the two allies, prime minister S\u00e1nchez has unashamedly moved Spain towards closer relations with China<\/a> \u2013 the US\u2019s biggest global rival.<\/p>\n

Spain has even attempted to persuade European Union allies to avoid adopting tougher trade restrictions on Chinese imports to Europe. Madrid has suggested that better relations with China, including making trade concessions, may help to bring Beijing onside to tackle the major world issues like climate change, AI and nuclear power, just as the US has stopped playing its traditional role of international arbiter of the world order.<\/p>\n

With tensions growing between the allies, this was the second time Trump had instructed Bessent to halt commerce with Spain.<\/p>\n

However, after his first threat to do so in March, trade between the two countries continued normally. There is a world of difference between saying and doing, and, as in the case of most of Trump\u2019s wild and petulant threats, the sting is removed when they brush against reality. Victor Burguete, an expert in trade and economics at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, a think tank, said the only way Trump could act against Spain would be to prove the US faced a situation of national emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very unlikely that Trump can prove this. This seems like another threat from Trump, rather than reality,\u201d he told The Independent. <\/p>\n

\"DespiteDespite what looks like conflict between the two \u2013 Sanchez played down the claims, saying him and Trump had friendly converstions at the Nato summit (Getty)<\/p>\n

The Spanish<\/a> government said that EU customs and trade rules also prevented singling out member states for trade embargoes.<\/p>\n

For his part, S\u00e1nchez played down the latest rift with Trump and said that despite the public tongue-lashing behind the scenes, the two leaders discussed the World Cup and golf.<\/p>\n

The prime minister also insisted that Spain was a reliable Nato ally, adding that Spanish troops would be deployed to Finland to support a Nato mission. He also said Spain was among the fastest-growing military spenders in Nato over the past two years.<\/p>\n

Domestic political pressures however are making it hard for S\u00e1nchez to win support for raising defence spending even further. Spain\u2019s minority left-wing coalition government is led by the Socialists and the far-left Sumar party, which opposes any rise in military spending.<\/p>\n

And there is no sign that the Spanish prime minister has changed his mind on the continuing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. He was one of the first leaders<\/a> to publicly oppose the Iran war, labelling it \u201cillegal\u201d. In a televised address in March, S\u00e1nchez added that the US-Israel attack on Iran was \u201cunjustifiable\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d, adding that Spain\u2019s position was \u201cno to the war\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how humanity\u2019s great disasters start. The world cannot solve its problems with conflicts and bombs.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Gaza war, S\u00e1nchez publicly condemned the \u201cgenocide\u201d<\/a> during the Israeli invasion of the Palestinian territory. In September, the Spanish prime minister announced measures to bar weapons sales to Israel, a staunch ally of the US.<\/p>\n

Boats carrying fuel destined for the Israeli military were barred from Spanish ports and Spain has cut the transport of military equipment to Israel by air. \u201cAll those people participating directly in the genocide, the violation of human rights and war crimes in the Gaza Strip will be banned from entering Spanish territory,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said in a widely applauded televised address.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump’s trade threats, major U.S. investors have expressed enthusiasm about Spain as an investment destination. BlackRock, the world\u2019s largest asset manager, said in its mid-year report that Spain was its “preferred country for equity exposure” because its economic growth has outpaced most developed countries, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

There is no sign that the Spanish prime minister has changed his mind on the continuing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. He was one of the first leaders to publicly oppose the Iran war, labelling it \u201cillegal\u201d<\/p>\n

BlackRock holds \u20ac104bn (\u00a388.7bn) worth of Spanish equities, debt, and other assets, and Spain is the US-based firm\u2019s main bet at a global level for the next six months, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

However, net overall U.S. investment in Spain fell by \u20ac1.9bn in the first quarter, according to Spain\u2019s Economy Ministry.<\/p>\n

Spain is the world\u2019s largest olive oil exporter and also sells auto parts, steel, chemicals, and wine to the United States. However, Spain\u2019s wine exports, already facing a tougher US market before Trump’s latest threat, fell by 4.3 per cent in value and 2.6 per cent in volume in 2025, according to Spain\u2019s wine industry group OIVE, as cited by consultancy ERA Group.<\/p>\n

\"SanchezSanchez and his wife, Begona Gomez, on a visit to China earlier this year \u2013 where he said deeper ties were in the interest of both countries (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

However, analysts consider it far less exposed to US trade than its European peers.<\/p>\n

In any case, S\u00e1nchez\u2019s strategy of warming relations with China may be starting to pay off.<\/p>\n

In April, during the Spanish prime minister\u2019s fourth visit to Beijing in as many years and after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, S\u00e1nchez said that the international order was \u201ccrumbling\u201d and that deeper ties were in the interests of both China and Spain.<\/p>\n

Beijing agreed to cut Spain\u2019s trade deficit of nearly $50bn and allow Spain greater access for Spanish agricultural projects like pork and cherries into the Chinese market. Experts said Spain\u2019s foreign policy towards China is one of \u201cpragmatic engagement\u201d \u2013 or taking a risk that closer ties with Beijing will bring greater dividends for its own economy and for Europe.<\/p>\n

Miguel Otero, an analyst in Sino-Spanish relations at the Real Elcano Institute, a think tank in Madrid, said Spain\u2019s policy stemmed from a belief that China was a player on the international stage which Europe could not afford to ignore.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain\u2019s answer is based on a change in the structure of international relations. China is the second biggest economy \u2013 not some marginal player that Europe can afford to ignore. It is a dominant force in green tech and other sectors,\u201d he told The Independent.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, returning to the US from the Nato summit, Donald Trump<\/a> appeared to backtrack from his earlier dressing-down. Speaking aboard Air Force One, he said that Spain “fully redeemed itself” after the Spanish government agreed to a “major payment request” from Nato, without offering further details about the exact nature of that agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain wants to navigate between two poles\u201d, says Otero. \u201cFor Madrid, pragmatic engagement is a way to strengthen the industrial base of Spain and the rest of Europe. But Spain is not naive; it is a calculated way to gain leverage in a world which is dominated by US-China rivalry.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We should be used to Donald Trump\u2019s outbursts by now, but that doesn\u2019t mean they are any less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22792,153,5442,2367,5441,204,22395,5448,24,14042,3613,17,3566,7819,22791],"class_list":["post-53221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-ankara-turkey","tag-asia","tag-color-image","tag-diplomacy","tag-horizontal","tag-military","tag-nato-summit","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-press-conference","tag-spain","tag-spanish-prime-minister","tag-talking","tag-turkiye-country"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53221","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=53221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}