Trump Again Lambasts “Very Disrespectful” Spain, Threatens “Punishment Through Tariffs”

President Trump has again put Spain in the spotlight in some Tuesday afternoon comments which again included the threat of economic isolation and punishment. He went so far as to call out the NATO country for being “very disrespectful”.

“I’m very unhappy with Spain. They’re the only country that didn’t raise up their number to 5 percent. Every other country in NATO raised up to 5 percent… It wouldn’t matter if you said you’re not gonna protect them because they’re pretty much protected, you know,” he began

“What you’re gonna do? Go through the other countries and ‘let’s go attack Spain,’ right?” he then questioned. “So I think what they did is not nice, I think it’s very disrespectful to NATO.”

And that’s when Trump threatened, “In fact, I was thinking about giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did, and I may do that… I think they should be punished for that, yes.”

US President Trump:

“I’m very unhappy with Spain. They’re the only country that didn’t raise up their number to 5 percent. Every other country in NATO raised up to 5 percent… It wouldn’t matter if you said you’re not gonna protect them because they’re pretty much… pic.twitter.com/iAadLSo3ah

— Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (@Archer83Able) October 14, 2025

During the latest NATO summit held in The Hague, member nations pledged to allocate 5% of their annual GDP to core defense needs and broader defense and security expenditures by the year 2035.

When last week Trump issued his initial threat of repercussions against Spain for lack of pulling its own weight in the alliance, Spanish officials brushed it off.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles last Friday said her country is “not worried” about getting kicked out of NATO as the lowest spender on defense.

“We are not worried,” Robles said. She added later, “I believe that President Trump must know that Spain is one of the committed and loyal (NATO) allies.”

This was in response to Trump earlier calling Spain a “laggard” given the nation merely contributed 1.3 percent of its GDP to its defense last year.

Trump had said, “We had one laggard. It was Spain, Spain. You have to call them and find out why are they a laggard, and they’re doing well, too.”

He had added in last week’s comments, “They have no excuse not to do this, but that’s all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.”