Trump says Spain will be a ‘ruined country’ after Cueta migrant crisis, renews attack over NATO

US President Donald Trump has warned that Spain will be a "ruined country" as he criticised Madrid over the migration crisis in Ceuta and again accused the Spanish government of failing to spend what it should on NATO.

Trump made the remarks in an interview with British channel GB News, linking his criticism of Spain's defence spending and its NATO commitments to the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta on July 30 and 31, when tens of thousands of people crossed the border from Morocco.

Also Read: Unpredictable, dangerous: US issues Cueta travel advisory amid massive migrant crisis


"Spain will be a ruined country. I have had my own problems with Spain because Spain does not behave very well regarding NATO. It does not pay what it should pay", Trump said in the interview, excerpts of which were disseminated on Thursday.

Trump described the events in the Spanish autonomous city as "very sad to see" and compared the situation with migration pressures faced by the United Kingdom.

"I have never seen anything like it", he said, arguing that while Britain has "their own problems," they "are not as visible" as those in Spain.

"They do not have thousands of people bursting into their country in that way. I have never seen anything like it", Trump said.

Also Read: Ceuta migrant crisis: Spain breaks silence with firm sovereignty message

The latest comments mark another public intervention by Trump over the Ceuta migration crisis. After the mass entry at the end of July, he had blamed the situation on the "weak laws" and "mismanagement" of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government and said Spanish authorities "did not know what to do".

Trump had also referred at the time to an interpretation circulating around a Spanish Supreme Court ruling and the possibility of returning to Morocco migrants who entered Ceuta by swimming.

The Spanish government has identified that interpretation as one of the false messages that helped fuel calls for people to cross the border.