Trump takes aim at ‘wasted cause’ Spain and revives Greenland claim at Nato summit

US President Donald Trump has used the Nato summit in Ankara to lash out again at fellow member Spain, and revive his interest in taking over Greenland.

Speaking as Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte looked on, Trump said he wanted to cut off all trade relations with Spain, condemning his European ally as a “wasted cause” and “terrible partner in Nato”.

He also called Nato’s resistance to his plan for Greenland to belong to the US, rather than Denmark, as “a big problem for us”.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez later insisted that relations with the US were “very positive”, and that he had had an informal chat with Trump.

“We talked about the World Cup… there was no tension whatsoever, on the contrary it was all very friendly,” said Sánchez.

Government sources in Madrid said earlier that Spain was responding to Trump’s message calmly and patiently, and had no intention of changing their “excellent social, cultural, and economic relationship”.

However, Trump has clearly not forgiven Sánchez’s Socialist-led government for not allowing the US to use bases at Morón and Rota for missions as part of the war against Iran.

Trump has also been frustrated by Sánchez’s refusal to increase Spain’s defence spending to 5% of its economic output (GDP) which he has called “unreasonable but also counterproductive”. Spain spent 2% of GDP on defence in 2025.

Back in March, Trump made the same threat to halt trade relations using very similar language, and at the time Sánchez responded by laying out his position as “no to war”.

There was no change to trade afterwards, and Madrid sources pointed out that last year the US had a trade surplus with Spain. According to US Congress figures, mutual trade was worth $75bn (£56bn) in 2025, and the US made $3bn more from the relationship than Spain.