It’s time for Spain to ban foreign donations to political parties

Trump called European leaders a bunch of losers in an interview with Politico this week. This is classic Trump, with no policy substance, just the same old tropes: Low-IQ Biden! Corrupt Democrats! Along with the addition of decaying Europe!

The irony cannot be missed as this interview took place because he was chosen as Politico’s most powerful person shaping European politics in 2025. This moment came on the heels of the December 4th National Security Strategy (NSS) report that warned of Europe’s imminent “civilizational erasure.”

These shaky times for transatlantic relations call for open-eyed realistic (not necessarily realist) thinking. This starts with separating serious security strategy from the clickbait aimed at feeding the attention economy. Trump’s rants can help point us to where he and his national security team coincide. Three dominant themes in transatlantic relations as we close out the year and his first 10 months of his second term are (1) culture and immigration, (2) security and Ukraine and (3) tech regulation.

In this column, I will focus on the first theme. This week showed us that there is no doubt that Trump and his national security team are dead serious about taking the same culture war playing out in the U.S. across the pond to Europe.

In a section titled “Promoting European Greatness,” the National Security Strategy is more eloquent than Trump but, equally clear: “The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.”

This mirrors the culture wars that MAGA is waging at home, starting with immigration, or, in the language of the NSS, “civilizational erasure.” This echoes the “great replacement theory” that drives anti-immigrant sentiment within MAGA. This theory posits that too many non-Europeans (let’s be clear, Black and brown people) are darkening white Europe just like they are darkening white America and are bringing in their foreign religions and cultures. The fight against immigration is what most unifies MAGA with other right-wing nationalist parties across Europe.

But it doesn’t stop there, MAGA disdains everything it considers an enclave of the leftist thinking it despises. We’ve seen how Trump has waged battles against universities, think tanks and foundations. Internationally, this includes the European Union and NATO as well as all European national governments that aren’t on the extreme right.

The NSS makes the Trump administration’s support for nationalist European political parties explicit—something not only unprecedented in American politics but also in direct contradiction to Trump’s own rhetoric about sovereignty.. It states that the U.S. government will stand up for “unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”

To make things even clearer, a set of bullet points outlining the broad policy priorities for Europe includes, “Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”

Europe’s nationalist parties have heard this loud and clear. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is reveling in Trump’s support while France’s National Rally is still grappling over whether this support could end up being a liability. Here in Spain, Vox has long welcomed Trump and MAGA’s support.

So we’ve got the U.S. government plainly stating its aim to interfere in internal politics across Europe and Spain has made itself especially vulnerable to such interference. How? Because Spanish law regulating the funding of political parties allows for donations from foreign individuals, but not governments or other organizations. Foreigners can give up to 50,000€ in funding to any Spanish political party, but the donor only has to be reported it if the donation is over 25,000€.

Why on earth would Spain allow foreign funding of political parties? I have not found a satisfying answer. I’ve always assumed that it was an oversight because there just isn’t as much money swirling around political campaigns here as there is in the U.S.

When I led the U.S. Democratic Party in Spain, Spanish friends would often ask if they could donate to our campaigns, especially Obama’s. But foreign citizens cannot donate to American political parties or campaigns. Further, any donation exceeding $200 must be reported with the name of the donor.

Don’t get me wrong, U.S. campaign finance has its own set of horrors. Corporations are considered people with free speech rights and have a near limitless capacity to fund campaigns.

Now, imagine the MAGA-verse pouring money into Spain’s next general election or even the 2026 regional elections. Imagine the kind of cash that could be shoveled into Vox’s coffers. Especially tech money, which wants to break up the EU and its regulations. If you are a Vox supporter, this might seem like a positive development, but what about the next time foreign interests interfere in Spanish and European politics to support the extreme left?

Spain deserves better; it’s time to ban foreign donations to political parties.