US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has threatened to halt all trade with Spain, after the country barred the US from using its military bases as part of its operation in Iran.
In comments at the White House, Trump said Spain had been "terrible".
"And now Spain actually said that we can't use their bases, and that's all right. We can use their base if we want, we can just fly in and use it. Nobody's going to tell us not to use it. But we don't have to. But they were unfriendly. And so I told them we don't want to. Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people; they have great people, but they don't have great leadership," said Trump.
It is unclear whether the Trump administration will follow through on the threat, or how officials would move to block trade with a European Union member state.
Trump's comments add to existing tensions between the two countries, including over the Spanish government's resistance to Trump's demand for NATO allies to raise their defence spending.
"As you know, they were the only country that in NATO would not agree to go up to 5 per cent. I don't think they wouldn't agree to go up to anything. They wanted to keep it at 2 per cent, and they don't pay the 2 per cent. So we're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain," he threatened.
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