Trump Threatens to Cut Off All Spain Trade
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Trump threatened to "cut off all trade" with Spain after Madrid barred US use of its military bases for the Iran operation, calling Spain "terrible" and saying "we don't want anything to do with Spain."
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed Trump's claim of legal authority to embargo Spanish imports, but US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was non-committal when asked by the president for his view on the plan.
- EU single-market rules would block any unilateral US trade restriction on a single member state, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Trump on Tuesday that any EU trade deal must include Spain.
- US-Spain trade in 2025 totaled roughly $47bn — about $26bn in US exports and $21bn in imports — with Spanish pharmaceutical products and olive oil among the top US-bound goods.
- Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez called the US and Israel's attacks on Iran an "unjustified, dangerous military intervention" in violation of international law, prompting Madrid's refusal on base access.
- Trump also criticized the UK as "very uncooperative" on base access for Iran operations but did not threaten trade restrictions on Britain, and separately faulted Spain for refusing to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP.
Why it matters: The threat runs straight into EU single-market rules that prevent one member state from being sanctioned individually, and Germany's Merz is already telling Trump that Brussels speaks for Spain. With $47bn in annual bilateral trade — including pharma and olive oil flowing into the US — the embargo could squeeze American importers and consumers, and Trump's own trade representative would not commit to the plan on the spot.
