![\"King](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2262277613-594x594.jpg\" "\\"King")
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King Felipe VI of Spain receives the Letter of Credence of the new Ambassador of the United States, Benjamin Leon Jr., at the Royal Palace of Madrid, on Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
Europa Press News<\/p>\n
Europa Press via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Madrid<\/p>\n
The new U.S. ambassador to Spain, L\u00e9on Medical Centers founder Benjamin L\u00e9on Jr of Miami., is facing unprecedented challenges as relations between Washington and Madrid have reached a fresh low over differences over the Iran war.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump branded Spain a \u201cterrible\u201d ally after Spain refused to let the U.S. use two military bases for attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re not cooperating at all. Spain. I think they\u2019ve been very bad, very bad. We may cut off trade with Spain,\u201d he told reporters on Wednesday, arguing that Madrid has been \u201cvery bad to NATO\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last week, Spain Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said the country\u2019s position was \u201cno to war\u201d in Iran, which he condemned as \u201cillegal\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ambassador L\u00e9on, who built a healthcare empire that treats some 40,000 Medicare patients in South Florida, was a major donor to the Trump re-election campaign.<\/p>\n
He was sworn in by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb. 10 and presented his credentials to King Felipe VI of Spain days later, shortly before relations between the two nations deteriorated publicly.<\/p>\n
Upon taking his post, L\u00e9on said that he would try to persuade the left-wing Spanish coalition government to raise its contribution to NATO from 2% to 5%, a measure the Trump administration has demanded of all European allies.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpain is a key NATO ally and host to thousands of our troops. Our collaboration on security matters is essential for maintaining stability in Europe and beyond,\u201d L\u00e9on said during an acceptance speech in the U.S. Senate in October. \u201cI will work to strengthen our defense partnership, including increasing Spanish defense spending and investments and continuing joint military exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n
This may prove hard, as Spain\u2019s coalition government is made up of the Socialists and the far-left Sumar party which opposes any increase in NATO spending.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez has also found that his anti-war stance has proved popular with Spanish voters.<\/p>\n
A poll in El Pa\u00eds, a left-leaning Spanish daily, published on March 6 found that 68% opposes the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, while 23.2% supported it. Pollsters surveyed 500 people.<\/p>\n
The prime minister faces a general election next year but has experienced a series of poor results for his Socialist party in two regional elections that are seen as a pointer for who might win when Spaniards go to the polls in 2027.<\/p>\n
Unable to pass a budget because of the fractured nature of the Spanish parliament, S\u00e1nchez has sought to use foreign policy issues like recognizing the Palestinian state in 2024 and now opposing the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran to win support at home.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Madrid declined to comment and said L\u00e9on would not be giving interviews at present.<\/p>\n
Ignacio Molina, an expert in U.S.-Spanish foreign relations at the Real Elcano Institute think-tank in Madrid, said L\u00e9on had arrived in post just as relations had reached a \u201chistoric low\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, he said, L\u00e9on had the advantage of having Spanish family links, his Cuban origins and that he is not part of the MAGA movement in the U.S. L\u00e9on\u2019s great-grandparents left the Canary Islands to live in Cuba.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may prove an advantage in dealing with the current Spanish government. Also, he may find allies among conservatives in Spain who support the U.S. stance on Iran,\u201d Molina told the Miami Herald. \u201cOne of these is Isabel D\u00edaz Ayuso, the Madrid regional leader, who is a popular figure among conservatives in Latin America and she supports private health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Oriente in eastern Cuba in 1944, L\u00e9on moved to the U.S. in 1961. He worked with his father to set up medical centers for Cuban immigrants.<\/p>\n
He was the founder of the L\u00e9on Medical Center clinics and supports Miami Dade College, where he established the Benjamin L\u00e9on School of Nursing.<\/p>\n
In 2015, he donated $2.5 million to the Rubio presidential campaign. He also gave at least $1 million to Trump causes and is one of dozens of donors who bankrolled the president\u2019s new White House ballroom.<\/p>\n
His wife, Mavileibys Campa Felipe, 38, who is also of Cuban origin, has prompted admiring reports in the Spanish media, with \u00a1Hola! Magazine calling her the \u201cFirst Lady of the new US Ambassador to Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juan Tovar Ruiz, an expert in international relations who specializes in U.S.-Spain relations at the University of Burgos in Spain, said the present problems in relations may be dissipated by a change of government after next year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that S\u00e1nchez\u2019s anti-U.S. stance is popular in Spain. But if the government changes after the general election next year we are likely to have a coalition of the conservative People\u2019s Party and the hard-right Vox party,\u201d he told the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will be more sympathetic to the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Felipe VI of Spain receives the Letter of Credence of the new Ambassador of the United States,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92188,123,92191,125,124,92192,92189,92190],"class_list":["post-199347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-benjamin-leon-jr","tag-miami","tag-miami-donor","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-nato-spending","tag-us-ambassador-to-spain","tag-us-spain-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}