WASHINGTON — President Trump railed Monday against NATO allies that refused to allow the US to use their bases to attack Iran, declaring he was going “cut off all trade with Spain” and denouncing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “no Winston Churchill.”
Trump became visibly angry during his sitdown with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, spending several minutes blasting America’s European allies and arguing that they don’t spend enough on defense.
“We were going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“Spain has been terrible,” he said. “Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases.”
“They were unfriendly,” Trump added. “Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people. They have great people, but they don’t have great leadership.”
The president has several reasons to be angry with Spain.
Madrid has resisted efforts to increase its defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product, as Trump has demanded from NATO member.
And Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the joint US-Israel attack on Iran as “unilateral military action” in violation of international law.
The Sanchez government refused to give the US permission to use bases in the southern cities of Rota and Morón to assist the bombing campaign.
Trump was just as mad at the UK for its initial refusal to allow the US military to use the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia as a base from which to attack Iran.
“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said of the Labour prime minister.
“I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have, that they gave away and took a 100-year lease, having to do with perhaps indigenous people claiming the island,” Trump said of the UK relinquishing Diego Garcia and the wider Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
“They never even saw the island before. What’s that all about? And they ruined relationships. It’s a shame.”
Diego Garcia’s local population was removed by the British in 1971 to make way for military facilities.
The agreement to cede the island to Mauritius in exchange for a 99-year lease to continue to use Diego Garcia is on hold after Trump expressed opposition to the deal.
Starmer originally denied the US permission to use British military bases in its attack on Iran.
He later reversed course Sunday night and agreed to let American forces use bases in England and on Diego Garcia to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.
The prime minister also had harsh words for Trump on Monday, telling the House of Commons the UK government doesn’t believe in “regime change from the skies.”
