Donald Trump criticizes immigration management in Ceuta and Spain's defense policy

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, published this Saturday late last night in Washington (early morning in Spain) a message on his social network in which he defines what is happening in Spain as “very sad” as a consequence of the migration crisis in Ceuta after the massive entry of immigrants from Morocco at the end of July. The brief post also talks about “a country with ZERO control of its border.”

The argument abounds in a statement he made last week to the British news channel GB News, with which he sat down for a friendly interview. Then, the president of the United States said: "What is happening there is very sad to see. Thousands of people breaking into their country en masse. I have never seen anything like it."

From the sum of both statements, a common pattern with Trump emerges: when he comes up with a clear and forceful message, he disseminates it through several of the channels at his disposal so that it gets through.

It is not the first time, however, that the tenant of the White House has pursued the thread of Spain and, more specifically, of its current Government, since he returned to the White House. The relationship between both countries is tense and Trump has been publicly declaring his displeasure with Spain for more than a year for its refusal to increase defense spending to 5%, as the only exception in the NATO partner club, for the Executive's attitude regarding Israel's role in Gaza or for its refusal to lend the shared use bases of Rota and Morón for Washington's military campaign in Iran.

In his interview last week, Trump recalled the main of those grievances. "Spain will be a ruined country. I have problems with Spain because it is not behaving very well towards NATO and it is not paying what it should pay," he told GB News, a British television and radio station. Founded in 2021 to compete from the right to BBC and Sky News, it is a populist and anti-woke media, and its alignment with the MAGA (Make America Great Again) thesis has given it unprecedented access to the Trump White House.

Most of the conversation after the exchange about Spain revolved around the United Kingdom and the apocalyptic vision that the American extreme right has of the situation on the island, between praise for the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, after a first contact, and attacks on the Muslim mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn.

“Nothing the same”

Trump, who has spoken about Spain during the campaign for the upcoming midterm elections, legislative elections that will be held in the United States on November 3, also retracted the part in which he assured that he had never seen “anything like” what happened in Ceuta. It was when he recalled that, in the worst moments of the immigration crisis of the Joe Biden Administration, the illegal crossings intercepted by the authorities on the border with Mexico amounted to 10,000 per day. One of the star policies of his second Administration has been to “shield” the southern border, and the president boasts of having reduced crossings to “practically zero.”

At the end of July, more than 70,000 immigrants from Morocco entered Ceuta irregularly, most of whom returned in the following days. Just over 5,000 still remain in the city waiting for their return or asylum files to be processed, while the situation in the Spanish city worsens.

The tense relationship between Trump and Sánchez contrasts with the good harmony between the president of the United States and King Mohamed VI of Morocco. Trump's recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara at the end of 2020 was a stellar moment in an agreement that dates back to the beginnings of the American Republic: in 1777, Morocco was the first country to recognize the independence of the colonies that would end up forming the United States.

It is in recent times a three-way relationship, with Israel as the third leg. Morocco was one of the countries that signed the Abraham Accords for the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel in the death throes of Trump's first presidency.