WATCH: Trump threatens to end all trade with Spain

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he wanted to end all trade with Spain over disagreements about military spending.

The president cited Spain’s reluctance to increase defense spending to match other NATO members and its refusal to allow the U.S. to use its bases for the Iran operation.

“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” Trump said Tuesday during a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Merz agreed with Trump that Spain had failed to invest in defense with other NATO members as required.

“We have all committed to the 5% NATO target,” he said.

Trump’s latest trade threat indicates that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling has not altered his approach to using trade as leverage.

On Sunday, Spain announced it would deny the U.S. permission to use its air bases for operations connected to the war in Iran.

Spain is part of the 27-nation European Union, which recently halted plans to finalize a trade deal with the U.S. after the U.S. Supreme Court said the bulk of Trump’s tariffs were illegal.

On Tuesday, the EU said it expects the Trump administration to honor the trade agreement made with the 27-nation bloc in Scotland last year.

Merz said Spain couldn’t be singled out.

“First, Spain is a member of the European Union, and as such we conduct negotiations on a tariff agreement with the United States only together – or not at all,” the German chancellor said.

Trump previously warned other nations not to use the Supreme Court’s decision to renegotiate deals.

“Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to. BUYER BEWARE!!!,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

The U.S. trade deal with the European Union called for 15% tariffs on goods coming to the U.S.

The EU deal was the biggest deal Trump made after announcing “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2, 2025. U.S. total goods trade with the European Union was an estimated $975.9 billion in 2024.

The Supreme Court, divided 6-3, ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act didn’t give Trump expansive tariff powers to tax goods entering the country.

“The Framers gave ‘Congress alone’ the power to impose tariffs during peacetime,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.