00:00Spain has been terrible. Donald Trump is hitting out at Madrid, threatening to cut off all trade with the socialist
00:06government of Pedro Sanchez after the prime minister refused to let American warplanes use its bases to attack Iran.
00:14The U.S. president also pointed to Sanchez's refusal to join NATO allies in a pledge to boost defence spending
00:20to 5% of GDP.
00:22Well, Trump is speaking during a press briefing with the German chancellor at the White House.
00:28And now Spain actually said that we can't use their bases. And that's all right. We could use their base
00:34if we want. We could just fly in and use it.
00:37Nobody's going to tell us not to use it, but we don't have to. But they were unfriendly.
00:42And so I told him we don't want to. Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people.
00:48They have great people, but they don't have great leadership. And as you know, they were the only country that
00:54in NATO would not agree to go up to 5%.
00:57I don't think they wouldn't agree to go up to anything. They wanted to keep it at 2% and
01:02they don't pay the 2%.
01:04So we're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain.
01:08Well, let's get the view to all of this from Madrid. We can cross live to France 24's Sarah Morris.
01:15Sarah, perhaps unexpected attack on Spain. How has this all gone down where you are?
01:23Well, in some ways, the Spaniards are getting used to attacks on Spain because this spat between Donald Trump and
01:31the Spanish prime minister,
01:33Pedro Sánchez, has happened before. And many businesses that I've spoken to, people who work with U.S. businesses, are
01:42always pretty dismayed.
01:44They want the relationship to maintain as smoothly as possible.
01:49Spain is perhaps less exposed to Trump's actions or tariff hikes than perhaps a partner like Germany would be.
02:01But nevertheless, there are sectors like the olive oil business that do export significant amounts to the U.S.
02:09And they would not like to see some kind of retaliation.
02:13Let me tell you what a government official is saying.
02:15They are saying basically that they have a historical and mutually beneficial trade relationship with the states
02:22and that they expect that if it wants to change that, it should do it while respecting the independence of
02:30private companies and international legality.
02:34It also says that it could take some kind of mitigating action if necessary.
02:42In the past, Spain has tried to get the EU to look at the possibility of some kind of bailout
02:50if there was any kind of pain for the EU from Trump's actions.
02:55In the past, in relation to tariffs, in this case, in relation to any other kind of action he could
03:01take against Spain.
03:03But the opposition party of the conservatives are already attacking the Prime Minister, the Socialist Prime Minister and the left
03:11-wing government
03:12as saying that it is some of their actions that have got Trump to signal out Spain.
03:18And we've got Alberto Núñez Feijo tweeting out to Pedro Sánchez,
03:24If Iran thanks you and the United States considers you a terrible ally, the failure is yours.
03:32And many people think that Pedro Sánchez has been too outspoken in relation to Donald Trump and to the Israeli
03:40government's actions in Gaza.
03:42And they think that that has been unnecessary and that Spain should have coordinated its actions more closely with EU
03:50allies like France, the UK and Germany.
03:54And Sarah, what actual power, though, does Trump have to end trade with Spain, given that it is an EU
03:59member state and the US Supreme Court has struck down his previous efforts to impose arbitrary tariffs?
04:07That's a good question, because any kind of tariffs are always related to the EU as a trading bloc and
04:14not to individually Spain.
04:16In the past, analysts have mooted that he could seek to try to target specific Spanish products like olive oil
04:25and wine.
04:26But, of course, they would then target some of the other EU allies that may be closer to Trump, like
04:33Italy, which also exports olive oil.
04:36It isn't very clear in the past that specific threat against Spain hasn't materialised.
04:44But this spat with Donald Trump and Pedro Sánchez is a common ongoing thing.
04:52And we're expecting the government to make more of a statement in the coming hours.
04:56Sarah, for now, thanks so much for that reaction from Madrid to those comments earlier by Donald Trump.
05:04That's our correspondent, Sarah Morris.
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