Trump Orders U.S. to Cut All Trade With Spain as Feud Escalates at NATO Summit

The complaint appeared to be referencing Spain’s refusal to commit to investing 5% of GDP annually on defense by 2035, after other member states agreed to the target at last year’s summit.

“We don’t have to trade with them. I don’t want to do any more trade with them. All right, take it immediately,” Trump added.  “Don’t even talk to them, they’re hopeless, bad people.”

Spanish Health Minister Monica García issued a strong rebuke of Trump’s pointed criticism.

“Trump calls Spain a ‘terrible partner’ because it accepts neither blackmail nor threats. Because we are a sovereign, democratic country that defends multilateralism and peace,” she said. “Terrible is to confuse diplomacy with thuggery.”

A source from the Spanish government told TIME “our country maintains a magnificent social, cultural, and economic relationship with the U.S.A and it is not our intention that this will change.”

Relations between Washington and Madrid have become strained amid the fallout of the Iran war, after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez emerged as one of Europe’s most vocal critics of the U.S.-led military campaign.