Heres why Trump threatened to cut off trade with Spain and which goods could become hard to get in the US

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off all trade with Spain, due to Madrid’s refusal to increase military spending and its airspace restrictions on the US’s attacks on Iran.Trump has warned NATO allies against playing “funny math” with their defense spending — by either failing to lay out clear plans to meet the figure or including non-military expenses — to European allies.While every allied country did hit the 2% defense spending threshold in 2025, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte backs Trump’s insistence that all members are on track to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2030. However, Spain appears far from that goal on paper.Socialist President Pedro Sanchez has refused to spend more than 2.1% of the country’s GDP on defense.As for Trump’s latest threat to cut off trade, Sánchez’s office said that Madrid “maintains an excellent social, cultural, and economic relationship with the US, and we have no intention of seeing that change.”Such trade cutoffs aren’t easy to achieve.

Ending all trade with the country will limit Americans’ access to common household goods, such as olive oil, and interfere with existing agreements with the European Union. On Wednesday, Trump said “Spain is a wasted cause,” and that the US doesn’t “want to do any trade business with Spain anymore.” The president said he ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade for the second time this year.“Spain is a terrible partner in NATO.They don’t participate, they don’t pay.

I don’t want to have anything to do with Spain.Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits… Watch them come running back,” Trump said.“We don’t have to trade with them.

I don’t want to do any more trade with them, alright? Immediately,” he added. Trump said that Spain would put down their “hostile” front when they “call up and they [say], ‘Please, please.We want to trade with you, sir.

We want to...