STORY: U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (March 3) said the United States would cut off all trade with Spain after the European country refused to let the U.S. military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.

"Spain has been terrible," Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to "cut off all dealings" with Spain.

"We're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain," he added.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: MEETING BETWEEN U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND GERMAN CHANCELLOR MERZ, SOUNDBITES FROM TRUMP AND MERZ

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE STORY

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (MARCH 3, 2026) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP WITH CHANCELLOR FRIEDRICH MERZ

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott (Bessent) to cut off all dealings with Spain. First of all, it started when every, every European nation, at my request, paid 5%, which they should be doing. And everybody was enthusiastic about it. Germany, everybody. And Spain didn't do it. And now Spain actually said that we can't use their bases. We could use their bases if we want, we could 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 him, we don't want... Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people. They have great people, but they don't have great leadership. And as you know, they were the only country that in NATO would not agree to go up to 5%. I don't think they would agree to go up to anything. They wanted to keep it at 2% and they don't pay the 2%. So we're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain. By the way, I'm not happy with the UK either. That island (Chagos Archipelago) that you read about, the lease, for whatever reason he made a lease of the island and somebody came and took it away from him. And it's taken three or four days for us to work out where we can land. It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours. So we were very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with."

3. MEETING IN PROGRESS

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"And we have the right as an example, we talked about Spain. I could tomorrow stop or today even better, stop everything having to do with Spain. All business having to do with Spain, have the right to stop it. Embargoes, do anything I want with it. And we may do that with Spain. What do you think?"

5. MEDIA GATHERED

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) GERMAN CHANCELLOR, FRIEDRICH MERZ, SAYING:

"The answer to that is quite simple. We are trying to convince Spain to catch up. It would be 3% or 3.5%, which we agreed on in NATO. And as the president said, it's correct, Spain is the only one who is not willing to accept that. And we are trying to convince them that this is part of our common security, that we all have to comply with these numbers. And this is 3.5 for military and another 1.5 for our military infrastructure. So Spain has to comply with that."

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"They've been, they've been very, Spain has been very, very uncooperative and so has UK. The second one is shocking, but this is not the age of Churchill. 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, they never even saw the island before. What's that all about? And they ruin relationships. It's a shame."

7. MEETING IN PROGRESS