President Donald Trump threw a summit of Nato leaders into disarray yesterday as he demanded the United States cut trade ties with Spain and made renewed claims on Greenland, but later changed tack and said there had been love and ‘a lot of unity’.
Speaking in the Turkish capital Ankara, Trump called Madrid a ‘terrible partner’ in Nato as he railed against allies for not supporting the war on Iran and ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt all trade with Spain.
His remarks – also declaring the fragile ceasefire with Iran to be over – overshadowed a summit that European leaders had hoped would look past a series of rows that have threatened to tear the military alliance apart.
“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” Trump said. “By the way, I’d like to cut it off. Spain is a terrible partner in Nato. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, including visits.”
Trump spoke alongside Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, who has assiduously tried to assuage his concerns over defence spending, Iran and Greenland, while lavishing praise on the president for bringing such issues to the fore.
But emerging from a closed-door meeting of Nato leaders, Trump later said: “There was a lot of love in that room, a lot of unity.” He also spoke more warmly of Volodymyr Zelenskiy when he met the Ukrainian president, in stark contrast to the tongue-lashing he gave him at a White House meeting last year. A source familiar with the Nato talks said Trump had not repeated his criticisms behind closed doors and instead wanted to keep the US in Nato, saying ‘we want to remain with you’.
French President Emmanuel Macron also said he did not hear any gripes from Trump, while Rutte said the alliance was ‘more together than ever’. On paper at least, the summit ended with a message of solidarity, with Nato allies including Trump affirming their ‘iron-clad commitment’ to collective defence under the alliance’s Article 5 pact in a summit declaration. Nato members also pledged $80 billion in military assistance to Ukraine for 2026. Trump’s earlier public remarks had undercut the carefully crafted pre-summit messaging that European Nato countries had increased military spending, which saw at least $50bn in defence initiatives unveiled on Tuesday.
Washington and Madrid have been at odds, with Spain explicitly rejecting Trump’s demands for European countries to sharply boost military spending and pay for their own defence. Spain’s Socialist leadership has also refused to let the US use its airspace or bases on its territory for the Iran war.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez later said he had a ‘very cordial’ conversation with Trump in which the pair discussed the soccer World Cup, which the US is hosting, and golf, but not military spending. Sanchez’s health minister, Monica Garcia, was more blunt. “We are a sovereign, democratic country that defends multilateralism and peace,” she said on X. “What’s terrible is confusing diplomacy with bullying.”
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