Sánchez says Spain told Trump no on 5% defense spending: “Not governed from Washington”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told a campaign rally Saturday that Spain had rejected President Donald Trump's push for NATO allies to spend 5% of GDP on defense, declaring that Spain "is governed from Spain, not from Washington." Facing a general election on Nov. 29, the Socialist leader also held up this week's U.S. midterms as proof that the far right can be beaten.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez used a campaign rally in Catalonia on Saturday to tout his refusal of President Donald Trump's defense spending demands, telling supporters that Spain would not devote 5% of its economic output to the military.

"At the height of the far-right wave, we told Trump and all those warmongers that we were not going to spend 5% of our gross domestic product on defense, because we wanted to continue investing in education, health care, long-term care and pensions for our citizens," Sánchez said in the port city of Tarragona. The Socialist leader, who is seeking a new term in a general election on Nov. 29, shared the stage with Catalan regional president Salvador Illa before a crowd of about 2,000 people, according to the Catalan Socialist Party.

In the clip, Sánchez ties the NATO spending fight directly to Spain's welfare state, presenting the money Washington wants allies to pour into their militaries as funds his government would rather keep for schools, hospitals, elder care and retirees.

A long-running fight with Trump

Spain has been a frequent target of Trump's criticism inside NATO. At the alliance's June 2025 summit in The Hague, allies agreed to raise defense and security-related spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, but Madrid secured flexibility and said spending of about 2.1% would be enough to meet its military commitments. Trump responded by saying he would make Spain "pay twice as much" in trade talks.

The dispute deepened this year over the war with Iran. In March, Spain refused to let U.S. forces use the jointly operated bases at Rota and Morón for strikes on Iran, prompting Trump to say, "We're going to cut off all trade with Spain." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC at the time that Spain was "the only NATO member not meeting their NATO requirement" and called it a "free rider."

“Not from Washington”

Sánchez framed the Nov. 29 vote as a choice between his government and what he called the "international far right." "On Nov. 29 we are going to tell them with our vote that Spain is governed from Spain, not from Washington, not from Tel Aviv, not from Buenos Aires, not from Moscow," he said, according to Spanish media.

The video shows Sánchez naming the foreign capitals one by one before vowing that Spain will not become "an outpost or the backyard of the international far right." The mention of Buenos Aires was aimed at Argentine President Javier Milei, a close Trump ally, who said at this week's Ibero-American Summit in Madrid that socialism is fascism. "We will not allow Milei to define socialism," Sánchez replied.

Sánchez also pledged to enshrine abortion rights in Spain's Constitution if re-elected and pointed to a 66% rise in the minimum wage over the past six years. Turning to his conservative rivals, Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal of the far-right Vox, he said: "If we vote en masse, we send Feijóo and Abascal home."

Pointing to the U.S. midterms

Sánchez repeatedly held up this week's U.S. elections as a model for Spain. He predicted that the far-right wave would lose strength in Spain as it had in the United States and Brazil, three days after hailing the Democrats' midterm sweep and writing that the same shift "will happen soon in Spain."

Pedro Sánchez speaks to supporters at a Socialist campaign rally in Tarragona, Spain, on Nov. 7, 2026

Relations with Washington have become a campaign theme for Sánchez, one of the few European leaders to openly oppose the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. In March, he summed up his government's position as "No to war" and said Spain would not be complicit in something bad for the world "simply out of fear of reprisals from someone."

In the final clip, Sánchez promises supporters that Spain "will continue to be a beacon" and "will continue to inspire the world." "We did it in 2023. The United States has done it. Brazil has done it. And Spain will do it on Nov. 29," he says.

Video: Clash Report. Photos: PSOE / Eugenia Morago

Sánchez says Spain told Trump no on 5% defense spending: “Not governed from Washington”