He’s enjoying a surge in the polls, adoration from citizens around the world and is often referred to as ‘El guapo’ (the handsome one).
Pedro Sanchez, currently, is everything Donald Trump is not, and I’m sure it makes the US president sick to his stomach with envy.
Adding salt to the wound, Spain’s economy has been consistently outperforming expectations to become the motor engine of Europe and one of the fastest growing in the developed world.
While tourism plummets in the US, in Spain it is smashing records.
Foreign investment is also flooding in and job creation has outpaced many of its EU counterparts.
International economists have taken notice, with Spain increasingly held up as a rare post-pandemic success story in the Western world – the kind of praise Trump’s ego craves.
All of this alone is enough to irritate a man obsessed with optics and dominance.
In one of his latest diatribes, Trump asked ‘has anyone noticed how badly Spain is doing?’, going on to label its economy disastrous.
That’s despite all the data and evidence showing the opposite – although we know he’s never been a fan of facts.
But Spain also has something else right now: a leader willing to say no.
Sanchez has carved out a very different path on the global stage. From the outset, he refused to blindly fall in line with US and Israeli invasion of Iran.
While others rushed to pick sides, Sanchez held his ground and refused the use of the shared military bases in Rota and Moron, in Andalucia.
Trump has built his brand on bluster, unpredictability and grievance. Sanchez, by comparison, is projecting something far less chaotic and far more appealing to an increasingly war-weary global audience: principles.
Across Europe, social media has been flooded with praise for Spain’s stance. From Paris to Berlin, users are hailing Sanchez as a leader with backbone, someone willing to resist pressure rather than cave to it.
In a political era dominated by noise and ego, that kind of measured defiance cuts through, and the surge in support is something Trump could only dream of.
Because while Sanchez’s international reputation is rising, Trump’s remains deeply polarising. His attempts to belittle or undermine Spain only serve to reinforce the perception that he is rattled, and not respected.
Jealousy might sound simplistic. But in Trump’s case, it often is.
