President Donald Trump said Tuesday he ordered U.S. forces to join Israel’s attack on Iran because he believed Tehran was about to strike the United States, and announced that Washington would cut off all trade with Spain after Madrid refused to allow U.S. bases to be used for operations tied to the conflict.
Speaking in the Oval Office during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said he acted preemptively against Iran despite ongoing negotiations.
Trump: 'I might have forced their hand'
(Video: The White House)
“I might have forced their hand,” Trump told reporters. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first.”
Trump did not present evidence to support his assessment that Iran was on the brink of attacking U.S. forces. Iran had described talks held last week in Geneva as positive, with further discussions expected.
His account differed from remarks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Monday that the United States acted out of concern that Iran would retaliate against American forces following planned Israeli action.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.
Trump said the war could last four to five weeks but might also end within days. He described the military campaign as successful so far against Iranian naval and air targets.
“Just about everything has been knocked out,” he said, predicting Iran would eventually lose its ability to continue launching missiles. “They’ve shot a lot of them, and we’re knocking out a lot.”
Iran has responded by firing missiles and drones at neighboring Arab states and disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global energy trade.
Trump furious at Spain’s prime minister 'We’re canceling trade relations with her'
During the same Oval Office appearance, Trump sharply criticized Spain, announcing that the United States would sever trade ties after Madrid declined to authorize the use of U.S. military bases on its territory for missions connected to the Iran strikes.
“Spain has been terrible,” Trump said. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
The United States recently relocated 15 aircraft, including refueling tankers, from the Rota and Moron bases in southern Spain after the Spanish government said they could not be used for offensive operations against Iran.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Spain would not permit its bases to be used because such operations were not covered under its defense agreements with Washington and were not consistent with the U.N. Charter.
Relations between Washington and Madrid have been strained over migration and defense spending. Spain has resisted U.S. pressure to raise defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product, a target embraced by several other European nations.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also taken positions at odds with the Trump administration, including previously refusing docking access to vessels transporting weapons to Israel and announcing plans to pursue legal action against social media platform owners over what he called toxic content.
Trump’s decision to target Spain economically adds to tensions between the United States and some European allies as the war with Iran continues to reverberate across diplomatic and security alliances.