Spain Doesn't Mince Words About Trump's Illegal War

0:00President Trump spent much of the first year of the second term telling allies how terrible they are. America was spending money to defend them and getting absolutely nothing back. They were ripping America off by selling it goods and services that Americans wanted, so they should be tariffed until the PIP squeak. And not only that, they should positively welcome him if he decides he wants to take over some of their territory. And all along, the majority of European leaders for majority of the time, laughed and joked with him and flattered and praised him, and even called him daddy. Mark Carney went viral at Davos for simply and plainly not doing that, just talking about the new situation for the world order in a straightforward and adult way. And of course Trump was furious and retaliated in all of the usual ways. And now one European country specifically has followed Carney's lead with the outbreak of Trump's

1:05war of choice against Iran. Not France, although Macron has been the best of the rest on this score. Not Germany, not Britain, not Italy, Spain. Spain, the major NATO ally that hosts two significant US military bases on its territory, bases which it refused to allow to be used for operations against Iran. Not the only European country to draw that line, but the others were somewhat merely mad about it and came up with some ifs and some buts. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez went on to television, called for US and Israel strikes against Iran, a violation of international law. He said that politicians should be working to make people's lives better. And there's a concept, and he added this, it is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling that duty, use the smoke screen of war

2:08to hide their failures and in the process line the pockets of a few, the only ones who win when the world stops building hospitals to start making missiles. Though it turns out that Vassies not Donald Trump's idea of what an ally should be. Oh no, I was amazed. Such allies should take all of the insults, pay up on all of the tariffs, pay all of the extra costs from energy crises caused by his war, and then roll over and give him everything he wants exactly the way he wants it. Calling him daddy is optional, but highly encouraged. So Trump slated Vassmania to this commentary and he said this, we're going to cut off all trade with Spain, we don't want anything to do with Spain. Now Sanchez did not back down, he went on to television again and he said this, we will not be complicit in something that is harmful to the world and contrary to our values

3:10and interests, simply out of fear of retaliation. It probably doesn't hurt that the US only accounts for under 5% of Spanish exports, so Trump's favourite leverage in the form of tariffs would bother it less than many others, even if the Supreme Court of the United States hadn't made such things more difficult. That said, Spain does have significant exposure to the US, in terms of liquefied natural gas, 31% of its supply comes from America, so that could end up being a pain point. Sanchez is getting used to being the target of Trump's rage mind, Spain was the only NATO country that refused to agree to the new requirement that NATO countries spend 5% of GDP on defence. French President Macron threw his weight behind the Spanish position on Iran, insisting that Europe should close ranks to defend it from threats to cut trade. Because after all, the EU is supposed to be one single market that strikes trade deals as a block,

4:12allowing one country to be singled out for threats of economic coercion. That's kind of the real test of whether or not that stands under pressure. Macron also gave a televised address in which he said of Trump strikes on Iran, these were conducted outside international law, which we cannot approve of. Meanwhile, the rhetoric on the American side has been everything that you would expect. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that, quote, the Spanish put American lives at risk, which seems on its face to be the complete nonsense. Pretty sure the Spanish didn't force Trump to start bombing Iran and assassinating all of its leaders, I think that would really have to be on you. Later White House Secretary Caroline Levitt said Spain had had a change of heart, and agreed to cooperate with the US military. We sound lovely, but Spain pointed out that

5:13it was completely made up and they'd done no such thing. Now this is just one indicator of how Trump's shift into full-throated militarism in his stance towards the world is starting to produce a tidal wave of consequences, which we should expect to result in the disintegration of this polite façade that everyone has been clinging to. Because this war, which is indeed illegal because it's clear there was no imminent threat to the United States, is going to produce a lot of negative consequences across the globe. Yes, more negative consequences to add on top of all of those that came from the tariffs and so many other things from last year. So energy prices will be the first pain point, obviously. Twenty percent of the world's seaborn oil goes through the strait of hall moves. As a result, oil prices have already been shooting upwards, and it's likely to be an even bigger energy shock than the start of a Ukraine war.

6:14Not least, because it's on top of that event, which is still ongoing, not in isolation all on its own. But it's not just oil and gas, the strait of hall moves handles one-third of global fertilizer trade. The most widely used nitrogen fertilizer jumped to $130 per ton this week. This is not great timing, with the northern hemisphere being in the spring planting season. Sven Tor Helsefer, the chief executive of the fertilizer group Yara, put it like this, if you're not getting fertilizer into the field of the farmers, yields could go down by up to 50% in the first harvest. 50% and yet it's Spain who's supposed to be the bad guy here. Then they're shipping. 3,000 cargo vessels stranded worldwide, 10% of the global container fleet. Gever Ali Port in Dubai is one of the world's top 10 container ports connecting to 150 destinations worldwide. Now that port is currently still in operation,

7:22at the point of shooting this video. But it is a key failure point for world trade, but it's vulnerable and could add massively to the ripple effect outwards at any point. So the Trump team have been boasting about what an exceptional president this is, because all the ones who came before said you just couldn't do this sort of thing. And yet here he was, he came, and he just decided to blunder straight ahead and do it anyway. Well, they might find out exactly why those former leaders suggested that this might be a really bad idea. Now Trump's also grumbling about Britain and Keir Starmer. Britain did not allow its bases to be used for offensive action. Did eventually agree it could be used for taking out missile launchers to defend against strikes from Iran. Defensive, not offensive. So much for the special relationship said Trump, who was not satisfied with that distinction. That Keir Starmer, he's not exactly Winston Churchill, he said. Now obviously one could go

8:24through a very long list of US former presidents, but Trump is not exactly like as well. But this is the point, Starmer and Britain has been the ally that did the most it possibly could to hold together the illusion of being America's greatest ally. As Margaret Factor did with Ronald Reagan, although they were genuinely soulmates, as Toadie Blair did with George W. Bush, and they really weren't soulmates, but made a strong strategic partnership, regardless, for better or worse, discuss. But that is just not going to survive. Trump second term. He has shown himself to be an adversary of Europe, not an ally, threatening to take over Greenland, funding far right populist parties to try to install them into governments in a way that would provoke massive outrage where it the other way round. As indeed would most things that America is doing right now. Trump was repining today, but he didn't think the son of the former Ayatollah in Iran

9:27was a good choice for the next leader. They ought to involve him Trump, in the choice, he said, just like the Venezuelans did. Yes, indeed. This man believes it is his business to decide who gets to lead any country he turns his mind to, and the definition of fit to lead always resolves to whether they will pay homage to Trump first and foremost. And Trump's mega supporters, of course, are all over social media, saying, see, these countries so-called allies, they're not falling in line behind us to fight the war with Iran, and that's exactly why we should be taking Greenland, and exactly why we should be pulling out of NATO. Arguably, however, the thing that's making Trump really bad tempered right now, is he's learning at first hand for the America actually does need allies, and going out of your way to alienate everyone may not be serving your interests. Not that they will ever acknowledge that, certainly not in public,

10:28but there's any aspect of what's coming back to bite them is a consequence of Trump's own actions. There is no self-awareness here, and that is the nature of the beast. And history suggests that once you're on this sort of slippery slope, as the United States now is, the pace only ever picks up. Increasingly, other countries are going to conclude, they gave a pretend that it was all sort of normal, the best try that they could manage. They held it together for over a year. But now the idiot is starting wars, serious wars, likely creating world food shortages, spikes in prices that will affect the well-being of people across the globe. It has gone beyond a joke, beyond a situation that can be managed with a bit of flattery. Mark Arnie was the first, Pedro Sanchez was second. Emmanuel Macron was cheering them both on. The only question now is who will be next, and how quickly will this tiniest of trickles

11:34turn into a flood?