Trump threatens tariffs after Spain rejects NATO defense targets

Photo: AFP

On June 25, NATO leaders announced a new spending target in a summit declaration after meeting in the Netherlands, requiring each country to increase defense spending from the current 2% to 5% by 2035.

Trump said at the meeting that Spain's refusal to increase military spending like other allies was "very bad" and he would seek to punish Spain in ongoing trade negotiations.

Trump lashed out at Spain, saying it would have to pay "twice as much" in tariffs because Madrid refused to meet NATO's 5% spending target.

"You know they're doing great right now. The economy is great. But if something bad happened, their economy could completely collapse," Trump said.

It was unclear how Trump could directly name Spain, a member of the European Union, which as a whole negotiates trade with the United States. Still, Trump’s acerbic rhetoric and promises of retaliation again showed how the president sees tariffs as an expansionary tool to force other countries to his terms, even if the NATO defense spending deal has nothing to do with trade.

While European leaders heaped praise on Trump at the summit and praised him for achieving a historic increase in defense spending, some said his tariff talks threatened efforts to strengthen collective defense.

“We can’t say among allies that we have to spend more... and start a trade war,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters after the summit. “It’s essential that we return to the rules that should be in place within the community of allies... a real trade peace.”

Macron’s rebuke stood out in a summit that was deliberately, if not forced, courteous, and the only leader to criticize Trump’s decision to attack Iran last week.

Trump also spent a large portion of his closing news conference defending Iran’s attack, declaring it “very, very successful — it totally destroyed Iran,” and slamming reports from CNN and the New York Times that he said “demeaned” the troops involved in the attack.

Trump said that as intelligence assessments continued to emerge, the “most respected” reports confirmed that Iran had failed to move its nuclear materials before the U.S. attack.

“We felt like we hit it so hard and so fast, they didn’t move at all,” Trump said. “We destroyed the nuclear weapon. It went off… The sky fell.”

Asked what gave him confidence in the recent ceasefire between Iran and Israel, Trump said, “They’re both tired, exhausted. They’re both going home very satisfied.”