While Trump lashes out at Spain, US Democrats join a progressive rally in Barcelona

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, left, embraces Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the end of the Global Progressive Mobilisation summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort) 2026-04-18T09:59:17Z Barcelona, Spain (AP) — Progressive leaders from around the globe gathered in Barcelona on Saturday to try and galvanize their forces and defend a rules-based world order. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran , hosted two overlapping events about democracy and progressive politics in Spain’s second-largest city. Democrats U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were present alongside the leaders of Brazil, South Africa and high-ranking officials from other left-leaning governments. While no foreign leader criticized Trump by name in public, the staunchly unilateral position of the American president that breaks with decades of U.S. foreign policy, including his derision of NATO and the United Nations, hung over the meetings. “We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” Sánchez said. Trump again lashed out on Saturday on social media at Sánchez, who has faced Trump’s scorn for not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in Spain for operations related to the Iran war and for refusing to raise military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP. “Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social. Sánchez says the right’s time is running out Spain, like the U.S. and other developed countries, is in debt, but it has one of the world’s leading economies under Sánchez. Sánchez told the rally of progressive politicians and party members held later on Saturday that the populist right “screams and shouts not because they are winning but because they know their time is running out. “They know their vision of how the world should be ordered is falling apart due to the tariffs and wars,” he said. “Their embrace of climate change denial, of xenophobia, or sexism is their greatest error. (