Sánchez responds to Trump after criticizing Spain’s defense spending – POLITICO

Spain spent $21.3 billion on defense in 2024, according to estimates by the transatlantic military alliance. However, this spending represents only 1.28 percent of Spanish GDP, the lowest percentage among member countries.

During his first term, Trump often criticized European NATO countries for failing to meet the agreed defense spending target of 2% of their GDP.

The United States, for its part, spent 3.38% of its GDP on defense in 2024, according to NATO estimates.

Sánchez’s rebuttal comes after Trump said Monday that “Spain is very weak” in its contribution to the NATO alliance. (He then confused the country with a member of the BRICS group of emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and others.)

Today, the US president wants this figure to be increased to 5 percent, which would push Madrid even further away from the target. Although a new target of 5% would represent a significant increase, it has already gained support from other European NATO members, such as Poland, Estonia and Lithuania.