Trump now says that Spain "has redeemed itself" because it has been "generous" with NATO
The president of the United States lowers his tone against the Sánchez government but does not specify what the "important payment request" is
Special correspondent to AnkaraAnother U-turn from President Donald Trump. After being the entire NATO summit in Ankara charging against Spain, the President of the United States has changed his tone with the government of Pedro Sánchez and assured on the plane back that the Spanish state "has completely redeemed itself" because Moncloa has accepted an "important payment request". "Spain has been very generous today. They have agreed to an important payment request and, if they hadn't, we wouldn't even have spoken to them," the American leader assured.
However, Trump has not clarified what exactly this payment is and sources from Moncloa admit to ARA that they also do not know for sure exactly what he is referring to. The Spanish government has not announced any new arms purchase or extra disbursement for defense in recent hours. Nevertheless, the same sources understand that the President of the United States is referring to the fact that Spain has already reached 2% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in military spending. In fact, according to NATO diplomatic sources, Trump focused a large part of his speech within the room on congratulating the allies who were meeting the objectives of the Atlantic Alliance's military spending increase.
Although Sánchez refuses to reach 5% by 2035, as the United States demands, for the moment Spain is complying with the path of increased spending in defense as required by military understanding. Divergences between NATO and Moncloa are expected to arise later, when the Spanish government has to progressively increase this rate and continues to refuse to do so, as the President of the Spanish government assures at this time.
In fact, in the report on military spending published at this NATO summit, there are three allies – the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Albania – who, unlike Spain, are below 2% of GDP in military spending. Furthermore, several European governments of the Atlantic Alliance have publicly opposed the high rate demanded by Trump and the complications of allocating so much money to security, such as the United Kingdom, Italy or, among others, Hungary.
On the other hand, Spain also participates in the NATO initiative dubbed PURL (an acronym for Priority Ukraine Requests List) promoted by Trump with the aim of making European allies pay even more for the war bill and, at the same time, profit from it economically. It is an Atlantic Alliance program through which European allies buy weapons from the United States for the Pentagon to send to Ukraine, even though the American leader abruptly cut off aid to Kyiv when he regained the White House. In total, the Spanish state has participated with 150 million euros, 50 of which were deposited at the start of the Atlantic Alliance summit in Ankara.
Despite Trump's threats against Spain, Sánchez played it down and assured on Wednesday that he had received them with "calm and tranquility". In fact, the Spanish Prime Minister explained at the press conference concluding the summit that he had an informal and cordial conversation with the President of the United States; they even talked about trivial matters such as the Football World Cup or golf.
"Unity and love"
Trump's final press conference at the NATO summit was already a correction to all the threats and humiliations he had launched during the leaders' meeting and the preceding days. The President of the United States read - although he couldn't help but go off script every now and then - some paragraphs in which he thanked the host country, Turkey, and its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for organizing the meeting; and he remarked on several occasions that in the room where the leaders met, "love and unity" had been breathed. "There is a tremendous love [among allied leaders]. They love us, they love each other. There has been tremendous unity," he insisted.
Thus, the New York magnate avoided lashing out at the allies he had been threatening and humiliating for days. He only reproached – once again – countries like Germany, France or Italy, for not having become involved in the war in Iran that Trump himself started, along with Israel, but he did not threaten them with reprisals nor did he recall their expansionist desires in Greenland. The tone was very different, less so for an ally: Spain. "It has been very bad," he repeated.
At the last minute, however, Trump has changed his mind again. The Spanish government is no longer made up of "bad" and "sick" people, and it seems that now he has forgotten the order he gave to the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, to cut off all commercial relations and official visits to Spain. Thus, the New York magnate has already assured on the way back on the plane that the Spanish government "has redeemed itself", although no one knows exactly why or when the next threat may come.