There were a few days last June when the relationship between the Government of Donald Trump and that of Pedro Sánchez seemed about to blow up. The Spanish president had snubbed the American, and a good part of his NATO partners, by becoming the only one of the 32 members who refused, publicly and in writing, to comply with the objective of 5% of GDP in security and defense spending. It would mean too big a leap, and tens of billions of euros that Spain could not afford and which, furthermore, according to the calculations presented by the Ministry of Defense, were not even necessary to comply with the military capabilities required by the Atlantic Alliance.
Trump didn’t take it well, but apparently not very badly either. In his first statements, he spent more time praising Spain and its economy, and highlighting the wonders of the country, much to his liking, than he did admonishing us for not complying. He asked that we pay the same as the others, among other things because part of that money is going to be used to buy American weapons, but he did it without resentment. Then he gradually raised his tone, as the journalists, especially Spanish, asked him about the matter. Then the threats began.
“Spain has always paid very little. NATO will have to deal with that”he said on June 20. “There is a problem with Spain. Spain is not accepting, and that is very unfair for the rest,” he said four days later. “We are negotiating a trade agreement with Spain. “We are going to make them pay double,” he cried on June 25. “You are the only country that is not paying. “I don’t know what the problem is,” he added.
Analysts and media outlets began to speculate on American options for punishing Spain. As trade policy is European, and tariffs are set for 27, many predicted that Trump would choose to put tariffs precisely on the most Spanish exports, such as oil, wine or olive. He didn’t do it.
Trump’s sycophants
Contrast the situation with that of France. The president Emmanuel Macron She has displayed all her glamor with the American, she has visited him in the White House, she has held parades in his honor, she has applauded his intervention in Venezuela. What has been Trump’s response? A full-blown public mockery a few days ago. Gesticulating, he imitated the Gaul as a subjugated being: “I will do whatever you want, Donald, but don’t tell my population,” he mocked before an audience of Republicans who laughed out loud. “I will increase the price of my medicines by 200%, or whatever, whatever you want, Donald, please, but don’t tell the population, I beg you.”
“We present the leader of the European anti-Trump resistance,” The Economist magazine headlined.
What was the punishment for Sánchez? At the moment, none. Trump has applauded how well the country’s economy is doing, the one that is growing the most and generating the most jobs, and then added that That’s exactly why you should pay more.. If he prepares a retaliation, at the moment Moncloa has not heard of it.
“Spain, unlike other countries, has not presented itself as servile, nor has it humiliated itself. At the same time, it has avoided direct confrontation. When Trump’s policies have been criticized, euphemisms have been used,” he says in conversation with EL PERIÓDICO Eduard Solerprofessor of International Relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and researcher at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI). “My intuition is that Trump does not reward too much the countries or leaders who put themselves at his feet and flatter him. It gives him a feeling of excessive weakness in the interlocutor, which he can take advantage of to try to put more pressure.”
At the same time, it is key that Sánchez has avoided becoming the Republican’s nemesis and has avoided a direct clash. “There has been a deliberate strategy of presenting himself all along as a solid, reliable and useful allyl for the interests of the United States. Margarita Robles has done her work in the field of Defense. We have hosted in Madrid the high-level meeting between the United States and China that has served to move forward to resolve the TikTok issue, and there were bilateral conversations there. Furthermore, there is no trade imbalance, and the United States is a large supplier of fossil fuels to Spain (the largest in liquefied natural gas). And we have the bases of Rota and Morón. “The United States sees that we are a useful actor, not a hostile one.”
Nor is it negligible that Spain is a minor country, which does not cause problems nor is it at the epicenter of the expansionist strategy marked by the Trump Administration. He is interested in applying coercion in what he considers his Hemisphere, the Western one. That’s why it goes against Venezuela or Greenland.
Less support for Vox than for AfD
We don’t even seem to be in the center of Trump’s target in his plan to support far-right parties in Europe. In the National Security Strategy published by his Administration, the focus is on the alleged decline of the Old Continent, particularly for accepting immigration. It is proposed support “patriotic” partiesthat is, the xenophobic national-populists who thrive in the Old Continent.
But, while he has openly supported Nigel Farage’s radicals in the United Kingdom or the Alternative for Germany in Germany, Vox seems to be kept in the background, Soler points out. And Spain is the country that is having the largest migration boom. He has given Vox some support, even mentioning their leader (Santiago “Obiscal”). But, for the moment, it has not interfered to encourage them.
Pedro Sánchez has been one of the most critical voices within the European Union against the violation of sovereignty and the rules-based international order that involved the assault and bombing of Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and take them to the United States to stand trial for narcoterrorism. In that sense, Sánchez came to sign with the similar countries of the Celac forumBrazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, a statement strongly condemning these actions. Again, there was not even a diplomatic protest from Washington, which has previously harshly attacked the Colombian Gustavo Petro or the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The attitude most similar to the Spanish one, the analyst points out, has perhaps been that of the Mexican Claudia Sheinbaum. She has maintained a tone of firm but constructive criticism, and for the moment her country, despite being the largest focus of drug trafficking to the United States and being left-wing, has not suffered the wrath of its North American neighbor.
Sánchez has also tried to temper, even though he is in the ideological antipodes. He did it from the first moment. When Trump won the elections, the Government of Spain congratulated him. He did not do it, for example, with Javier Milei after his electoral victory in Argentina.
Donald Trump (left) and Pedro Sánchez (right), with other leaders of NATO member countries, last June. THE HAGUE, 06/25/2025.- / JJ Guillén / EFE
““We present to you the leader of the European anti-Trump resistance.”headlined The Economist magazine last September. He remembered, for example, how at the NATO summit in which Sánchez ignored the common spending objectives, he also made an ugly gesture during the common photo, standing a little further away from the rest of the group, which was understood as a certain rudeness.
But, in general, Sánchez has managed not to make direct enemies of the American president or anyone on his team. At least, in this first year of the “Hurricane Trump” presidency.
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