Trump calls Spain a "disaster" and Rutte doubts it will meet defense goals without increasing spending
Mark Rutte believes that the Spanish government will be unable to achieve the Atlantic Alliance's capacity objectives with the 2.2% allocated to defense
BarcelonaMark Rutte, the NATO Secretary General, believes that Spain will not be able to meet the Atlantic Alliance's capability objectives without increasing defense spending to 3.5%. Rutte continues the controversial debate between the military organization, Pedro Sánchez, and Donald Trump, which has been ongoing for some time. "I don't think it can achieve it, and I think time will tell. But that's where we agreed to disagree last year, and that hasn't changed," Rutte said, referring to Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, who does not want to exceed defense spending of 2.2%.
The NATO Secretary General made these statements upon leaving the White House, where he met with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, this Wednesday. He has been the one who has most strongly criticized the Spanish government for not wanting to increase spending to 5% as NATO member countries agreed in 2025 in The Hague. This time was no different. Trump described Spain as "a disaster," a country that "thinks everything will come to them for free" and that "doesn't want to pay anything." He also criticized the Spanish executive's lack of support for the war against Iran and referred to the government's refusal to allow the use of its bases by the United States in the offensive in the Middle East.
Rutte assured Trump that Spain "is an isolated case" within the European framework, where he states that partners have provided logistical support for the conflict. Trump, however, disagrees and also criticizes Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, countries with which he is "disappointed."
The clash between Italy and Rutte
On the other hand, NATO and Italy are not going through their best moment. The Italian Ministry of Defense has denied the statements of Secretary General Rutte, who claimed that the government of the country's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, had made its bases available to Washington for 500 American planes in the offensive against Iran. "It is surprising that the Secretary General of NATO, who has nothing to do with Operation Epic Fury, offers a reconstruction that conveys a totally fallacious message by confusing the type of authorized flights," the ministry said in a statement.
Rutte cited Italy as an example of European support for the United States in statements to Fox News. He assured that 500 American planes had taken off from Italian bases "to support Epic Fury," the name given to the military operation against Iran that Washington launched together with Israel. These statements contradict the position of Meloni's government, which has repeatedly said it did not authorize the use of Italian territory for direct military action against Iran.
According to the statement from the Italian Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, Italy has acted in full compliance with its Constitution, international treaties, and the agreements governing allied bases on its territory. "As has already been clarified in Parliament, the government exclusively authorized technical and logistical, not kinetic, activities," said the minister, adding that Italy had rejected requests that fell outside these limits.
Tension between Rome and Washington
The relationship between Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump is also not in tune. The latest clash was last week, when Trump claimed in an interview that the Italian prime minister had “begged” him to take a photo together during the G-7 summit, held in the French town of Évian-les-Bains. Meloni denied Trump in a video on social media that concluded with a forceful statement: “Neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
The confrontation between the two leaders has led the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice President of the Italian government, Antonio Tajani, to cancel the visit he had planned to make to the United States at the end of June. The transalpine country hosts about 120 US military installations, including the Sigonella naval air station in Sicily and the Aviano air base in northern Italy. Currently, there are about 12,600 US soldiers stationed across the bases in Vicenza, Aviano, Naples, and Sicily.