Things are moving fast, and many of us wake each morning wondering what’s the latest shock coming from the Land of the Free. We switch on the TV or check the news on our mobile phone. What on earth is the King of America – and his supporters – up to now? He seems to be breaking things randomly. Silly calls and plastic straws and then some deadly serious issues too. We wonder if we will survive his reign (and in the likely event that he doesn’t last his four years, his vice-president appears to look like being an exceedingly poor choice as his replacement).
We worry about our children and the grand-kids. They won’t have it as easy as we did.
In my own defence, I’ve spent several years in the USA: I love being there, I was married to a wonderful woman from California and two of our three children (all born in Spain) live there. If you are going to be a foreigner in Gringolandia, being a tall, handsome and well-spoken Brit is as good as it gets.
Let us look then at Spain’s relations with the USA (known here as Los EEUU).
Since the Spanish think of America as being everywhere from Chile to Canada, we call their people los estadounidenses, which is an ungainly word meaning the United-Statesians. Don’t wanna offend no salvadoreño, no.
The USA, a NATO member, maintain a couple of military bases in Spain – a naval base in Rota (Cádiz) and an air-force base in Morón de la Frontera (Seville), although Politico reports ‘American troops in Europe are not forever, US defence chief Hegseth warns. Donald Trump’s man in the Pentagon hints at major disruption to the continent’s 80-year-old protective security architecture’. Meanwhile, some of the lefties here shout: ‘Yankees go home’. Beware of what you wish for.
Spain’s main international disagreements with the Americans are not about their military presence here, but rather to do with Gaza, Cuba and Venezuela; and since Trump’s return, the Ukraine. The Spanish people’s first concern – on another phase of dismay – could well be the shocking American treatment of their Hispanic citizens and immigrants (legal or otherwise). 
Trump launched his first volley towards Spain right after his inauguration (‘Liberty Day’) by (probably) confusing the country as a member of the BRICS, the ‘emerging world economies’ that include Brazil, Russia and China. Maybe he thought the ‘S’ stood for Spain (rather than South Africa). We’re with the PIGS, remember?
Understandably, America’s policies don’t always dovetail with Spain’s – several times, they’ve sided with Morocco for instance.
Right now, there are important economic differences too. Congress wants to inflict tariffs (aranceles) on their trading partners, and an agreement that foreign traders won’t be subject to DEI policies (diversity, equity and inclusion) – which goes against Spanish and European law, social justice and common sense. "We want to ensure that our contracts comply with all U.S. federal anti-discrimination laws and that suppliers do not operate programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion that violate existing federal laws," U.S. embassy sources told the Spanish national broadcaster RTVE, as if distasteful Trumpian policies must automatically be observed by the rest of the Free World.
But if trade is one thing, then security is another. Could Trump bring us into a war? Or maybe, could Trump take a step back and bring the rest of us into a war? The Economist says ‘… the Ukraine is being sold out, Russia is being rehabilitated and, under Donald Trump, America can no longer be counted on to come to Europe’s aid in wartime…’
Nominally, or at least in pre-Trump times, ‘Spain and the United States are close allies and have excellent relations based on shared democratic values, including the promotion of democracy and human rights’, says the US Department of State. And maybe the coming breakdown stems in part from the Moncloa. A Spanish newspaper reports that ‘On Monday, Sánchez legitimizes Zelensky in Kiev and puts Spain in the way of both Trump and Putin. He offers his full support to the leader of Ukraine against these threats on the third anniversary of the invasion’. A second article – this time about the Middle East – highlights Spain’s opposition to the ludicrous plan to turn the land into a gaming resort: ‘Sanchez calls Trump's plan for Gaza “immoral”: and “Gaza belongs to the Palestinians”’, says the headline.
Elsewhere we read (in a blistering take-down of the American leader): ‘Trump's betrayal opens a window of opportunity for Sánchez. Although, what the Spanish president must avoid in any case is that an excessive desire to take political advantage of Trumpian exuberance ends up by seriously damaging our country’.
It would be good to read that Sánchez has the support of all Spaniards (and better still, all Europeans) in his crusade against the current American leader (and his partner Elon Musk), but of course, there’s the Partido Popular, who are always looking for an angle to somehow take centre stage, and then there’s the far-right (are we allowed to call them fascists?) represented by Vox. This weekend at the PSOE Regional Congress in Seville, Sánchez called on Núñez Feijóo to cease his policy of being ‘a collaborationist’ with the far-right, and urged the PP to clearly position itself in favour of Europeanism. "You can’t support Europe only on the even days of the month", he said.
From an editorial at elDiario.es, we read ‘…Trump's offensive against Ukraine has left the Partido Popular in an uncomfortable position. Its only reaction to the events in Washington has been to criticise Sánchez for standing out in his denunciation of the policies of the new US government. It is difficult to know the PP's position on international relations, beyond generalities, other than seeing the world through what Sánchez does’.
It’s true that Donald Trump has a few friends from Spain. The Vox leader Santiago Abascal f’rinstance. Even if Trump, at the CPAC (the annual ‘Conservative Political Action Conference’ held last weekend), salutes Abascal from the tribune by mangling his name as ‘San Diego Obascal’. They must be very close.
Elon Musk though, Donald’s first buddy, further encouraged Abascal when he said on Sunday that ‘Vox will for sure win Spain’s next elections’.
No doubt, there’s a lot he can do to help make that forecast come true.