Trump Suggests Tossing Spain Out of NATO as a Bottom Spender

[Ocelot II]

1. He wanted to kick out Iceland, too (one of the founding members),

until it was pointed out to him that Iceland doesn't have any military forces but was an important base for other NATO forces.

I pointed out that several countries were close, and six or seven set to reach the target in the near future. Then there was Iceland: it has no armed forces, so would never spend 2% of its GDP on defence. It was therefore actually five out of 27 countries who had achieved the goal, rather than five out of 28, I said, thinking I may be coming across as rather nerdy with all these figures.

But this caught Trump’s interest, if not in the way I had intended. “Then what do we want with Iceland?”

Before I could say anything further, Jim Mattis came to my aid, explaining how important Nato’s bases there were for the alliance’s submarines, ships and planes: “Mr President, they’re good to have if you want to track down Russian subs.” Trump thought for a moment. “Well, then we’ll let Iceland stay a member,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/04/im-leaving-trump-said-theres-no-reason-to-be-here-any-more-inside-the-meeting-that-brought-nato-to-the-brink