DONALD Trump has called on NATO members to consider booting Spain out of the security alliance over prime minister Pedro Sanchez’s reluctance to up spending on defence.
The US president made the comments during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday with the leader of NATO’s second-newest member, Finnish president Alexander Stubb.
Asked about the US commitment to NATO amid mounting Russian aggression on the alliance’s eastern front, Trump said: “As you know, I requested that they pay 5%, not 2% [of GDP on defence].
“And most people thought that was not gonna happen. And it happened virtually unanimously. We had one laggard. It was Spain.
“Spain. You have to call them and find out, why are they a laggard?
“They have no excuse not to do this, but that’s all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.”
Since returning to the White House following re-election last year, Trump has forcefully lobbied NATO allies to up their contribution to the security alliance in an attempt to end Europe’s reliance on US defence spending.
READ MORE: Spain finally hits NATO target to spend 2% of GDP on defence, data reveals
Last year, just 19 of 31 member states hit a target to allocate 2% of GDP to defence spending.
Earlier this summer, NATO members struck an agreement to spend 5% of GDP on defence and security by 2035 in a move praised by Trump as a ‘big win for the US, Europe and Western civilisation’.
But prime minister Pedro Sanchez claimed to have struck a last-minute deal with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte that excluded Spain from the binding collective goal – arguing that such a level of investment was ‘incompatible with our welfare state and our world vision’.
The move infuriated Trump, who threatened to make Spain ‘pay twice as much’ as part of any future trade deal.
“I think Spain is terrible,” he told reporters following the summit in June, accusing Sanchez of taking a ‘free ride’ at the expense of other members.
Last month, a military aircraft carrying Spain’s defence minister suffered a ‘GPS disturbance’ near a Russian enclave just days after a spate of incursions into NATO airspace.
Margarita Robles was heading to Lithuania for a bilateral meeting with her counterpart Dovile Sakaliene when her jet’s navigation system was attacked.
The incident followed a similar scenario involving European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and incursions into Polish and Romanian airspace by suspected Russian drones.
The repeated incursions have heightened fears of a future confrontation that could spill out into all-out war – embroiling both Spain and the UK.
NATO Article 5 states that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all members, meaning an attack on a country such as Estonia or Finland would force Spain to take up arms.
Spain has been a member of the alliance since 1982, seven years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.
According to data published by NATO, Spain spent 2% of its GDP on defence spending in 2025 up to June 3 – finally meeting the long-standing target eleven years after it was first set.
That equates to over €33 billion of investment this year alone.
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