Spain dismissed US President Donald Trump’s latest remarks after he took aim at Madrid’s defense spending in his renewed criticism of NATO’s lower-spending members.

Speaking in the Oval Office alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb on Thursday, Trump called Spain a “laggard” within NATO and suggested the country should be expelled from the alliance for failing to meet its military spending targets.

“You people are going to have to start speaking to Spain,” Trump told reporters. “They have no excuse not to do this. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.”

Trump’s comments came as part of his renewed push for NATO allies to increase defense spending — this time urging them to reach 5% of GDP, a figure far above the current alliance benchmark of 2%. Spain is the only one of

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