U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon for remarks suggesting that non-U.S. NATO troops “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” during the war in Afghanistan, calling the comments “insulting and frankly appalling.”
Starmer said Trump’s claims diminished the sacrifices of allied forces, including British troops who fought alongside the United States for nearly two decades after the Sept. 11 attacks. The U.K. lost 457 service members in Afghanistan, with hundreds more wounded.
Trump made the comments in a Fox Business interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he questioned the level of NATO participation and suggested allied support had been insufficient.
“We’ve never needed them,” Trump proclaimed. “We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.”
Data from coalition records show that over 1,100 non-U.S. NATO troops died in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, fueling U.K. government and foreign veteran outrage over the remarks.
Mediaite continues, noting a remarkably similar reaction across the political spectrum in Great Britain:
John Healey, Britain’s defense secretary wrote on social media, “NATO’s Article 5 has only been triggered once. The UK and NATO allies answered the US call. And more than 450 British personnel lost their lives in Afghanistan. Those British troops should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.”
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the U.K.’s Conservative Party, released a video message calling Trump’s comments, “absolute nonsense.”
“Comments like this are factually wrong, weaken NATO, and denigrate the memory of our brave soldiers who served there,” she wrote.
And Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrat party wrote, “457 British troops lost their lives in Afghanistan. Trump avoided military service 5 times. How dare he question their sacrifice. [Nigel] Farage and all the others still fawning over Trump should be ashamed.”
Attempting to strike a more diplomatic tone, Starmer said that if he had misspoken in a similar way, he would “certainly apologize” to affected families and added that Trump should consider doing the same.
The backlash continues to spread in the U.K., with conservative journalist Andrew Neil accusing the U.S. president of sparking an “angry s**tstorm” that has turned “pretty much everybody against him, even his hitherto supporters on the populist right.”
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