Donald Trump has threatened to cease all US trade with Spain as he launched into a furious rant at European leaders, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” the US president said.

This came after Spain refused to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran. “Spain has been terrible,” Mr Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House on Tuesday (March 3), adding that he had told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all dealings” with Spain. The US President also used the White House press conference to share his frustration with the UK, in the wake of a dispute over the use of the UK’s airbase on Diego Garcia for US strikes against Iran.

Referring to the UK’s Chagos Islands deal, Mr Trump said: “That island that you read about, the lease, for whatever reason, he made a lease of the island, somebody came and took it away from him.

“And it’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land, it would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours.

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Mr Trump’s rant comes after Sir Keir refused to let the US use the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, as well as RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, for the strikes, saying “we all remember the mistakes of Iraq“.

“President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest,” the Prime Minister told MPs.

In the end, the US, as part of a joint operation with Israel, codenamed Operation Epic Fury, was launched from several strategic locations and platforms across the Middle East and beyond. US Navy guided-missile destroyers and warships positioned in the Persian Gulf and surrounding regional waters attacked using Tomahawk cruise missiles. The US deployed two major carrier strike groups to the region to conduct strikes: Carrier Strike Group 3, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, and Carrier Strike Group 12, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford.

The US also maintains a significant presence at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE and the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, which were all targeted by Iranian missile and drone strikes as part of Tehran’s retaliatory “Operation True Promise IV”.