NATO is in crisis. Several members refuse to let the United States, the backbone of the alliance, use bases and airspace for military operations against Iran, sparking the Trump administration’s ire and leading to questions about its future.
The failure of NATO members to do a bare minimum to help their ally confront a shared threat is deeply regrettable. And no one has performed more disgracefully than the Spanish government of Pedro Sanchez.
Under Sanchez, Spain has stuck a finger in the eye of the Trump administration and American taxpayers who overwhelmingly pay for the European country’s security and protection. The U.S. should make an example out of Sanchez and send a message to other allies that the failing status quo will no longer be tolerated. The era in which Uncle Sam should be treated as a sucker must be brought to an end.
The U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury to eliminate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ability to project power beyond its borders. Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, its status as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, its use of proxies to attack and control its neighbors, and its decadeslong campaign of assassinations presented a threat that could no longer be ignored.
The Iranian threat isn’t just to America. Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah have perpetrated terrorist attacks on European soil. As the regime recently demonstrated, Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missiles can reach most European capitals. America and Israel are working to prevent this, but are receiving little thanks and some odium in return.
It is Europe, largely demilitarized, deindustrialized, and energy dependent, that would suffer most should Iran and its terrorists be able to use nuclear blackmail. Iran’s recent efforts to choke off the Strait of Hormuz keenly illustrate the danger. Tehran has also actively enabled the largest land war on the European continent since World War II, fueling Moscow’s drone war on Russia.
Yet several top NATO allies — Britain, France, and Spain — have refused to let the U.S. use bases and airspace. As President Donald Trump noted, the U.S. wasn’t asking for men, munitions, or material. It was asking only for passive cooperation.
And yet, just weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other leading U.S. officials in Munich warned Europe that NATO’s future required partners rather than dependents, the message has been rejected.
Under Sanchez, Spain has become a problem child. Other nations, such as Germany, have agreed to Trump’s demand that European allies increase their NATO spending to 5% of GDP, but Spain has demurred.
Madrid has called such efforts “unreasonable.” Out of the more than 30 nations that make up NATO, Spain contributes the least, spending a paltry 1.28%-1.32% of its GDP, well below the 2% minimum.
Sanchez is also cozy with the Chinese Communist Party, which the Pentagon has labeled America’s only real challenge. In July 2025, the Spanish government awarded a multibillion-dollar contract to Huawei Technologies, which is controlled by the CCP and which the U.S. government has labeled a “criminal enterprise.” Huawei has been credibly accused of industrial espionage against America and its allies, yet Sanchez rewards it with contracts and access.
While Spain’s leader has attacked Epic Fury as “absolutely unjustified,” its neighbor, Portugal, has notably stepped up and done its part as America’s oldest ally, offering the use of Lajes Air Base.
Great powers know who their friends are and aren’t. The U.S. should move military assets and commitments from Spain to Portugal. It should consider leveling punitive economic measures against the Spanish government, as Trump has threatened to do.
NATO is one of the most successful military alliances in history, but it was built in another era to confront the Soviet Union, which collapsed more than three decades ago.
The Cold War is long over, and many in Europe have expanded their welfare states while America has continued to provide their defense. That is not sustainable or fair. It is not a recipe for a NATO that will endure into the future.
EDITORIAL: MORE TAXES, MORE FRAUD
NATO remains important to America’s interests, but as the U.S. looks to the Indo-Pacific and the growing threat of China, it will need European partners to take on more of the defense burden. This is going to happen one way or the other, and the smart bet is for our friends to start today, not tomorrow.
When then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates retired in 2011, his farewell speech was a warning to our partners in NATO that they needed to step up and do more. That was 15 years ago. Words must now be followed with action.