After threatening to sever all trade ties with Spain at a NATO summit on Wednesday, US President Trump had within hours already changed his tune.
US President Donald Trump has quickly backtracked on comments he made at the NATO summit that threatened to cut off all trade with Spain.
Speaking in Ankara on Wednesday, Trump stated that “Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” he added, asking his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut it off”.
He also singled Spain out for being a “terrible partner in NATO”.
However, just hours later whilst returning to Washington, the US President changed his tone.
Speaking to reports, he said: “I must admit I had problems with Spain, and I still do, but Spain came back all the way today. Spain was very generous today”.
READ ALSO: Spain remains ‘calm’ over Trump’s latest threat to cut off trade
Suggesting that Spain has made some kind of extra financial commitment, Trump added: “They honoured a request for lots of payment, and if they hadn’t, we wouldn’t even have spoken to them”.
However, Spanish daily El País reports that Trump did not specify to journalists travelling on Air Force One which “payment” exactly he was referring to.
READ ALSO: Why Spain is against Trump’s 5% Nato spending demands
Speaking from Turkey, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that NATO meetings had gone smoothly and he’d had a cordial conversation with his US counterpart.
“After Trump’s press conference, we spoke about football and the World Cup. It was a casual chat; there was no tension whatsoever – it was all very friendly,” Sánchez said.
This sudden about face is unsurprising and typical of Trump’s scattergun-style diplomacy. Wednesday’s comments were far from the first time had taken aim at Spain for its foreign policy, however.
Sánchez has effectively positioned himself as a leading European and global progressive voice in open opposition to the American president.
His outspoken positions on Palestine, Iran and NATO defence spending commitments have won him plaudits internationally but drawn the ire of the US President several times already.
READ MORE: Is Spain’s Nato defence spend really as low as Trump claims?
Back in March Trump again threatened to sever all trade with Spain after it refused to let US planes use its bases to attack Iran.
Meanwhile in May, Trump declared: “Spain is a horror show, Spain is terrible,” he said while speaking to journalists at the White House and sitting next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
This follows further comments in October that he was considering tariffs on the country as a punishment for failing to meet the five percent of GDP defence spending goal he engineered within NATO, suggesting that Spain should be “punished”.
He has also recently threatened to throw Spain out of NATO and levy “double tariffs” against the Spanish economy for not falling into line with Washington’s wishes.
Government sources quoted in Spanish daily El País, however, highlight that the US has a trade surplus with Spain.
“The bilateral relationship between the US and Spain is beneficial to both countries, both in the areas of trade and defence,” they added.
Furthermore, it’s unclear what power Trump would have to “end” trade with Spain, after the Supreme Court previously struck down his use of emergency powers to impose arbitrary tariffs.
It remains unclear too how the US could unilaterally cut off trade with just one EU Member State.
Following Trump’s comments on Air Force One, however, it seems the threat of tariffs or trade embargoes are over – for now.
READ ALSO: ‘A horror show’ – Spain’s stance on Iran war provokes Trump’s anger again
