President Donald Trump is facing criticism from U.S. allies after he suggested in a Fox News interview that NATO partners who sent forces to Afghanistan “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” comments that officials in Britain and elsewhere said diminish the sacrifices made during the two-decade war.
In the interview, conducted in Davos, Switzerland, Trump questioned whether NATO would come to the United States’ aid if it ever needed help and said the alliance had not been tested in that way. “We’ve never needed them. We have never… really asked anything of them,” Trump said, before turning to Afghanistan. “They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that and they did. They stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the remarks “insulting” and “appalling,” pointing to the 457 British troops who were killed in Afghanistan and the many more who were wounded. A junior British minister, Stephen Kinnock, said the comments were “deeply disappointing” and cited the losses suffered by other NATO allies, including Canada, France and Denmark.
Trump’s comments also drew attention because the Afghanistan mission followed the only invocation of NATO’s collective defense clause, Article 5, after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, a point emphasized by British officials responding to his remarks.
Donald Trump on NATO Troops in Afghanistan:
“We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan and this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, off the front lines.”
Shamefully ignorant. 457 British soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/EDaNby4mdh
— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) January 23, 2026
The criticism abroad landed alongside renewed attention to earlier reporting about Trump’s views on military service and war casualties. In 2020, The Atlantic reported that Trump, during a 2018 trip to France, privately disparaged American war dead and questioned the value of visiting a U.S. military cemetery near Paris. According to the report, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” and referred to fallen service members as “suckers.”
Trump denied that account at the time, and the White House disputed the reporting. Subsequent examinations of the episode have noted that some details around the cemetery visit and the sequence of events have been contested, though the alleged remarks have remained a recurring political flashpoint.
In the new Fox interview, Trump did not refer to those earlier allegations. His NATO remarks, however, quickly became the focus of pushback from allied officials and lawmakers who said they mischaracterized how coalition forces operated in Afghanistan.
Associated Press reporting noted that Starmer’s condemnation reflected anger across party lines in Britain, with veterans and political leaders citing the scale of Britain’s participation and the toll of the war on service members and families. Reuters reported that British officials highlighted specific casualty figures from allied countries as evidence of frontline contributions.
Trump’s interview came as the administration has pressed European allies on other security and trade issues, including Trump’s stated interest in acquiring Greenland, which has sharpened tensions at a time when NATO leaders have been focused on Arctic security and Russia’s posture in the region.
The White House did not immediately issue additional clarification of Trump’s remarks about NATO forces in Afghanistan. British officials called on Trump to acknowledge the role allied troops played in combat operations and the sacrifices made during the mission.
