Continuing his pattern of acting outside the bounds of international law and resorting to threats and force to achieve his objectives, US President Donald Trump is once again sowing chaos and uncertainty, as he has done more than once with tariffs. This time, he is threatening to sever all trade relations with Spain in response to the Spanish government's ban on the use of the Rota (Cádiz) and Morón de la Frontera (Seville) naval bases for attacks on Iran. He is ignoring the fact that Iran is part of a political and economic bloc like the European Union (EU), which acts as a single entity, and that there are intertwined economic, commercial, and business interests that benefit not only Spanish companies but also US ones. There are precedents for this type of threat, such as when he said he would impose tariffs on Spain because it did not allocate 5% of its GDP to defense spending—a threat he later retracted. As on the previous occasion, Brussels has reminded him that he cannot punish some countries and not others.