Trump Cooks NATO Freeloaders Spain With Double Tariffs
The “terrible” socialist in Spain was the only member of NATO to refuse a major increase in defense spending this week, leaving President Donald Trump threatening prices in return.
Spain will end up paying more, while saying what the obstinate refusal of its government will accept a larger share of the common defense of the Euro-Atlantic zone, because it will simply pay higher prices on trade instead, said President Trump on Wednesday.
Apparently, enjoying playing in the room and being laughing, President Trump showed a steel glow while pushing Spanish journalists trying to ask questions during his end -of -command press conference in The Hague, taking these moments to warn the Spanish government on their choice of lessons on NATO spending.
He said: “I think Spain is terrible, what they have done. They are the only country that will not pay … They want to stay 2 percent. I think it’s terrible, and you know that they are doing very well, the economy is going very well. And this economy could be blown away right away with something bad … You are the only country that does not pay, I don’t know what is the problem.”
Spain thought that it had managed to accept an exemption with NATO this week, allowing them to ignore the new objective of 5% of GDP in defense. Remarkably, the main European country is the least efficient state of NATO, spending 1.3% of the national GDP in La Défense in 2024.
He continued: “I think it’s too bad. So we’re going to catch him, you know what we are going to do? We negotiate with Spain on a commercial agreement, we will make them pay twice as much. And I am really serious on this subject. And I like Spain … These are great people. But Spain is the country that will not do it, they won’t do it.
He added later: “I will negotiate directly with Spain, I will do it myself. They will pay more money in this way”.
After having previously spoken of Spain’s question, Marco Rubio described Spain as “recalcitrant” and declared that the United States was skeptical about the Spanish affirmation according to which the arbitrary objectives of the GDP were useless because Spain was able to respond to its alliance commitments with a fraction of the expenses of its colleagues. Rubio said: “They claim to be able to do it for less, but Spain currently has profound internal political challenges, [and] They have a government on the left percent which essentially wants to spend very little or even nothing, for the army ”.
He continued: “I do not think that the agreement that Spain has concluded is durable, and frankly, this puts them in a very difficult situation compared to their other allies and partners”.
The Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who faces scandals of corruption at home, rejected criticism and insists that Spain verifies its NATO obligations with an exemption and declared that the military expenses of Spain were right. Galicia’s voz Sanchez and Trump reports did not even meet in person during the summit and that Sanchez said that national defense expenses are “realistic, sufficient and compatible” with the country’s social model.
