Trump: Spanish are members of NATO, but not very good members of NATO

US President Donald Trump criticized Spain’s commitment to NATO on Wednesday and said Cuba was "coming our way" after "many, many decades," as he noted the history of the Spanish-American War.

"Ah, the Spanish. They're members of NATO, but not very good members of NATO," said Trump. "They say, 'No, we don't want to help other people.' What are we doing? They are not behaving nicely. They will learn soon after they relinquish their grip on Cuba and Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, and they were all ours. We got them all. And speaking of Cuba, after many, many decades, it's coming our way," he added.

Spanish authorities have maintained that they can meet their NATO commitments while allocating around 2% of GDP to defence. However, the communiqué adopted at the alliance’s June 2025 summit stated that member states had agreed to raise defence-related spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, including 1.5% dedicated to defence infrastructure and expenditures related to military support for Ukraine.

Madrid’s position has drawn sharp criticism from Washington and from Trump personally.

Spain initially opposed the US and Israeli military operation against Iran and also declined to allow Washington to use military bases located on Spanish territory for that purpose.