"Throw them out of NATO': Trump slams Spain as PM Sanchez refuses to increase defence spending

US President Donald Trump slammed Spain, suggesting that the European nation should be expelled from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Spain received Trump’s wrath after the country’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, refused to accept the minimum target of spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence.

It is pertinent to note that the target has been agreed upon by all other member nations of the Western alliance, led by the United States. While speaking on the matter on Friday, Trump said that he had achieved agreement “virtually unanimously” on the rise in defence spending among alliance members, except for “one laggard: Spain".

The remarks from the American leader came during his meeting with Alexander Stubb, the Finnish President, in the White House. “Maybe you should throw them out of Nato, frankly,” Trump remarked, looking at Stubb with hopes of validation.

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‘No excuses’

While putting forward his case to the reporters at the White House, Trump argued that Spain had “no excuse” for not falling in line with the spending rise as the country was doing well economically, thanking his government’s policy.

At the June Nato Summit in The Hague, allies responded to Trump’s threats to reconsider the US’s role in the alliance by committing to spending at least 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence requirements and a further 1.5 per cent on security-related infrastructure and technology.

While this was happening, Sánchez negotiated an exception for his country, which he said could fulfil its existing Nato commitments in terms of military capabilities with a defence budget of 2.1 per cent of GDP. Neither Sánchez nor any member of his Left-wing government responded immediately to Trump’s threat of expelling Nato.

“Spain is a full member and committed to Nato. And it meets its capacity objectives just as much as the United States,” government sources told The Telegraph. According to the NATO data, Spain spent only 1.24 per cent of its GDP on defence in 2024.

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In April this year, the Spanish premier pledged to increase defence spending rapidly to reach two per cent by the end of 2025. Interestingly, the Nato treaty does not include a process of expelling a member nation.