President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was considering tariffs on Spain as a punishment for failing to meet the five percent of GDP defense spending goal he engineered within NATO.

"I think it's very disrespectful to NATO. In fact, I was thinking about giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did, and I may do that," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump suggested last week that Spain be expelled from NATO over its failure to match the higher defense spending requirement.

In June, the military alliance of 32 member states agreed to boost defense spending to five percent of annual economic output over the next decade under pressure from Trump.

But Spain, which was NATO's lowest defense spender in relative terms last year, insisted it would not need to h

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