EU pushes back after Trump says US will cut off Spain

US President Donald Trump has threatened to sever trade ties with Spain, declaring during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office: “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”

The remarks prompted a response from Spain’s European Commissioner, Teresa Ribera, who described Washington’s attempts to single out individual European Union member states as “profoundly disturbing.”

She warned that such moves are damaging “not only for societies, for peace, for cooperation, but also for the economy,” adding that they carry “immediate consequences in everyone’s economic activity as a whole.”

At the same time, Ribera expressed doubt that the threat would ultimately be carried out. “The American federal government knows” how the EU’s commercial policy is structured, she said, stressing that trade relations are handled at the EU level rather than by individual member states. In her view, Washington “is not interested in breaking trade relations.”

Drawing parallels with earlier tensions — including tariffs Trump threatened against the United Kingdom, France and Germany during his campaign push to acquire Greenland this year — Ribera argued that the appropriate response to what she called Trump’s “bully tone” is European unity. “It’s important to stay strong and to stand firm,” she said.

When asked whether she considered the US and Israel’s recent attack on Iran to be illegal, Ribera declined to give a direct answer. As a member of the European Commission, she said she must defer to EU leaders and to the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, who coordinates the European Union’s foreign policy.

Nonetheless, Ribera emphasised that “the exercise of force” and “respect for international law” must remain guiding principles, regardless of political preferences toward particular governments. “Otherwise, we could find ourselves with situations that are very difficult to justify that could be used as an argument by others to continue developing this temptation to use force against third parties,” she cautioned.

“We have to respect one another, our citizens, our sovereign decisions, our treaties, and Europe,” Ribera said. “And, above all, there must be respect for international law. The entire Charter of the United Nations requires compliance with conditions, requirements and procedures.”

By Tamilla Hasanova