{"id":87480,"date":"2026-07-08T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/trump-torches-spain-as-a-wasted-cause-and-looks-to-freeze-visits-in-extraordinary-snub\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T09:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:59:00","slug":"trump-torches-spain-as-a-wasted-cause-and-looks-to-freeze-visits-in-extraordinary-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/trump-torches-spain-as-a-wasted-cause-and-looks-to-freeze-visits-in-extraordinary-snub\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump torches Spain as a &#8216;wasted cause&#8217; and looks to freeze VISITS in extraordinary snub"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"js-article-text\">\n<ul>\n<li class><strong><a class rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/link.news.dailymail.co.uk\/join\/dc-insider-sign-up?utm_source=dailymail.co.uk&#038;utm_medium=organic_editorial&#038;utm_campaign=conversion_newsletter&#038;utm_term=dcinsider_bullets&#038;utm_budgetpot=organic\">Sign up HERE for DC Insider <\/a>&#8211; your free guide to what&#8217;s rocking Washington<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>See more Daily Mail on Google &#8211; <a rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=dailymail.com\">save us as a Preferred Source<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/profile-962\/jon-michael-raasch.html\">JON MICHAEL RAASCH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/follow?screen_name=JMRaasch&#038;tw_p=followbutton\"><span><\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n<p><span> <span>Published:<\/span> <time datetime=\"2026-07-08T13:57:39+0100\"> 08:57 EDT, 8 July 2026 <\/time> <\/span> | <span> <span>Updated:<\/span> <time datetime=\"2026-07-08T14:19:08+0100\"> 09:19 EDT, 8 July 2026 <\/time> <\/span> <\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/donald_trump\/index.html\" id=\"mol-57d34460-7ac7-11f1-8a50-9391fea9004e\">Donald Trump<\/a> demanded that all US trade with <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/spain\/index.html\" id=\"mol-57e25f90-7ac7-11f1-8a50-9391fea9004e\">Spain<\/a> be cut off on Wednesday after the &#8216;terrible partner&#8217; defied the President on <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/iran\/index.html\" id=\"mol-57e286a0-7ac7-11f1-8a50-9391fea9004e\">Iran<\/a> and <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/nato\/index.html\" id=\"mol-57e10000-7ac7-11f1-8a50-9391fea9004e\" class>NATO<\/a>spending.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Spain is a wasted cause,&#8217; Trump <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/article-15180049\/Trump-Spain-NATO-low-defence-spending.html\">said at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday.<\/a> &#8216;We don&#8217;t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don&#8217;t participate; they don&#8217;t pay. I don&#8217;t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, including visits.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Trump made the demands while sitting next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, noting how Spain has treated the NATO boss poorly as the nation, in his estimation, dramatically underpays on its defense obligations.<\/p>\n<p>Spain has been the only nation out of the 32 NATO partners to <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/article-14828435\/Spain-threatens-block-NATO-5-defence-spending-target-snub-alliance-chief-demanded-nations-boost-spending.html\">refuse to spend five percent of their GDP on defense<\/a>. Trump demanded in March that trade with Spain be halted, though it has continued normally.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Don&#8217;t even talk to them, they&#8217;re hopeless, bad people, because they have everybody else going and paying,&#8217; Trump fumed. &#8216;They make so much money with us, and we&#8217;re going to see that they make a lot less, I want no business with them.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in the room when the President made his demands. When Trump asked that trade be cut off, he appeared to be giving direct orders to Bessent.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also demanded that any &#8216;visits&#8217; to Spain be cut off as well, though it is unclear whether there were any existing travel plans for US officials to <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/fb-8105693\/What-know-DONT-Donald-Trump-closing-borders-Europeans.html\">visit the nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>President Donald Trump declared that the US would cut off all trade with Spain and cancel its upcoming visits on Wednesday<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Trump turned to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and ordered him directly to halt any trade with the NATO ally<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Trump said that Spain has been a terrible partner and that they have treated NATO poorly<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rutte attempted to steady the ship by noting how Spain &#8216;made a huge step last year&#8217; after raising its spending to 2 percent, though the NATO boss conceded that &#8216;there are still issues we have to solve.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s threats to cancel all trade with Spain could be watered down by European Union rules that require trade negotiations to be handled by the entire bloc of member nations.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican has signaled his frustration with Spain for months, particularly after the NATO member denied the US access to its military bases and airspace for use in the Iran war.<\/p>\n<p>The office of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a socialist, fought back against Trump&#8217;s claims, saying the nation has an &#8216;excellent&#8217; trade partnership with the US.<\/p>\n<p>The socialist is treating Trump&#8217;s remarks as &#8216;business as usual,&#8217; according to the office.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez is present at the NATO summit as well, and was photographed with Rutte and Trump around the same time Trump made his blistering comments.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear whether Trump has addressed the topic with the Spanish leader directly, or if he will at some point during the summit.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez can be seen in the blue suit furthers to the right<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (L) and Turkey&#8217;s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) greet Spain&#8217;s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as he arrives for the NATO Summit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Spain and the US exchanged roughly $75 billion worth of goods and services in 2025, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.<\/p>\n<p>The US had a trade surplus of approximately $4 billion last year, meaning that it exported more goods to Spain than it purchased.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                                                                                                                  <ad-slot position=\"smart_feed\"><\/ad-slot>                                                                <ad-slot position=\"after_article\"><\/ad-slot>                                                                                                                                                                         <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sign up HERE for DC Insider &#8211; your free guide to what&#8217;s rocking Washington See more Daily Mail on Google &#8211; save us as a Preferred Source By JON MICHAEL RAASCH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT Published: 08:57 EDT, 8 July 2026 | Updated: 09:19 EDT, 8 July 2026 Donald Trump demanded that all US trade with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}