Donald Trump ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade with Spain while speaking at the NATO summit this morning
Donald Trump has cut all trade with Spain.
The US President ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade with the EU power while speaking to the press this morning at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
“We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore. By the way, I’d like you to cut it up.
“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, please, including visits… I don’t want to do any more trade with them. All right, take it immediately.”
Trump also declared the ceasefire with Iran was ‘over’ following the renewel of strikes in the Middle East overnight. He was speaking to the press alongside Nato general-secretary Mark Rutte.
He said: “I think it [the ceasefire] is over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum.
“I’ll speak to our negotiators, they want to negotiate, they’re good people. But as far as I’m concerned it’s just a waste of time dealing with them [Iran]. They’re liars… There’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned it’s over.”
Despite Trump’s rant against Spain, Rutte has insisted the US is committed to NATO. He said: “There is complete commitment from the United States to Nato.
“The commitment is there, no doubt, also because Nato is there in the United States’s interest, to prevent, for example, the nuclear submarines of Russia ending up on the shores of the United States.”
He added that there was “an expectation” that European allies and Canada would “equalise their spending with the US”, saying this was “fair”.
Trump said he would bring up his “problems” with Nato at Wednesday’s summit and renewed his attacks on the alliance over Greenland. The US president said: “We’re having the big meeting in a little while and I’m going to relate my problems.”
“Greenland is a big problem for us,” he said, referring to his insistence that the territory – which belongs to Nato ally Denmark – should be part of the US.
He complained that Nato allies “weren’t there for us” in the US war in the Middle East, hitting out at the UK for initially denying Washington’s request to use British bases to launch strikes on Iran.
“The United Kingdom wouldn’t let us use the island for two weeks, so we had to fly back,” Mr Trump told Mr Rutte.