Spanish officials are throwing up their hands over Donald Trump’s contradictory ultimatums on military spending, with the country’s top diplomat essentially dismissing the president’s chaotic demands as inexplicable, Politico reported Friday.
The confusion stems from Trump’s erratic behavior at this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, where he attacked Spain as a “terrible partner” for refusing to commit to spending 5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense.
Then, on Wednesday, the president ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits”—a threat that appeared to be in earnest when a U.S. official confirmed Thursday that the Treasury and Commerce Departments were drafting “a menu of Spanish products that may be embargoed in the coming days.”
Trump then backed down after creating the international incident. “I did have issues with Spain, and I still do, but Spain came back all the way today,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, claiming Madrid had “honored a request for lots of payment.”
He added, “They were very generous today — you know, I told them I was going to stop trading.”
Pressed on what happened, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares expressed bewilderment, telling national broadcaster RTVE that he had no idea what Trump was referring to. “Only he can explain,” the diplomat said dryly.
Politico reported Spanish government officials were still scrambling to make sense of Trump’s comments, ultimately concluding he must have been referring to Spain’s compliance with existing NATO commitments to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense—not any new spending increases. “No, we understand [Trump] was referring to the data showing we’ve satisfactorily complied with the 2 percent target,” a Spanish government spokesperson told Politico.
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