The President of the United States, Donald Trump, posted late Saturday night in Washington (early morning in Spain) a message on his social network in which he describes as “very sad what is happening in Spain” as a consequence of the migration crisis in Ceuta following 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.”
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The argument builds on statements he made last week to the British news channel GB News, with which he sat 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 in en masse into your country. I have never seen anything like it.”
From the sum of both statements, a common pattern with Trump emerges: when he finds a clear and forceful message, he disseminates it through several of the channels at his disposal so that it sinks in.
It is not the first time, however, that the occupant of the White House pursues the thread of Spain and, more specifically, its current Government, since he returned to the White House. The relationship between the two countries is tense and Trump has been publicly expressing his displeasure with Spain for over a year due to its refusal to increase defense spending to 5%, as the only exception in the NATO partner club, for the Government’s attitude regarding Israel’s role in Gaza, or for refusing to provide 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 regarding NATO and does not pay what it should pay,” he told GB News, a British television and radio channel. Founded in 2021 to compete from the right with BBC and Sky News, it is a populist and anti-woke media, and its alignment with MAGA (Make America Great Again) theses has given it unprecedented access to the Trump White House.
Most of the conversation following the exchange about Spain revolved around the United Kingdom and the apocalyptic vision that the American far-right has of the situation on the island, including praise for the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, after a first contact, and attacks on the Muslim mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
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“Nothing like it”
Trump, who has spoken about Spain during the campaign for the upcoming midterm elections, legislative elections held in the United States on November 3, also retracted the part where he said he had never seen “anything like” what happened in Ceuta. It was when he recalled that, at the worst moments of the migration crisis of the Joe Biden Administration, illegal crossings intercepted by authorities at 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 entered Ceuta irregularly from Morocco, most of whom returned in the following days. Slightly more than 5,000 still remain in the city awaiting the processing of their return or asylum files, while the situation in the Spanish city worsens.
The tense relationship between Trump and Sánchez contrasts with the good rapport between the President of the United States and King Mohammed VI of Morocco. Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara at the end of 2020 was a highlight in an understanding that dates back to the beginnings of the United States Republic: Morocco was in 1777 the first country to recognize the independence of the colonies that would end up forming the United States.
In recent times, it is a three-way relationship, with Israel as the third leg. Morocco was one of the countries that signed the Abraham Accords in the final days of Trump’s first presidency to resume diplomatic relations with Israel.
On July 26, just days before the migration crisis broke out, Trump announced on his social network that Morocco had decided to name a road after the President of the United States that starts from southern Morocco to enter Western Sahara and reach the port of Dakhla (Villa Cisneros under Spanish administration). It is a basic route for the economic development plans undertaken by Morocco in the Sahara, particularly the new superport Dakhla Atlantic, under construction 30 kilometers north of the old Villa Cisneros.
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