Politicians and military veterans have reacted with outrage after Donald Trump claimed NATO troops, including those from Britain, stayed ‘a little off the front lines’ during the war in Afghanistan.
The US president was accused of taking a cheap shot at his country’s allies when he told Fox News on Thursday that he was ‘not sure’ the military alliance would be there for America ‘if we ever needed them’.
‘We’ve never needed them,’ he said, adding: ‘We have never really asked anything of them.’ ‘They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,’ he said, ‘and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines’.
He said the US had ‘been very good to Europe and to many other countries’, adding: ‘It has to be a two-way street.’
But he was met with a wave of fury. Some 457 British service personnel were killed in the conflict in Afghanistan, fighting alongside the US, and countless more were severely wounded.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch this morning accused the president of talking ‘flat-out nonsense’.
‘British, Canadian, and NATO troops fought and died alongside the US for 20 years. This is a fact, not opinion,’ she said.
‘Their sacrifice deserves respect not denigration.’
Labour Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said the disappointing’ comments ‘don’t really bear any resemblance to the reality’ of British troops’ service.
‘I think anybody who seeks to criticise what they have done and the sacrifices that they make is plainly wrong’ he added.
The mother of veteran Ben Parkinson, who is regarded as the most severely injured British soldier to survive in Afghanistan, said she was ‘stunned as to how anyone could say such a thing’ in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s comments.
Diane Dernie said: ‘I can assure you, the Taliban didn’t plant IEDs miles and miles back from the front line.’
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Donald Trump launched another onslaught of insults against Nato troops, claiming European personnel stayed ‘off the front lines’ in Afghanistan
British marines hold rifles during a patrol at the Bagram air base near Kabul 19 December 2001
Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said the disappointing’ comments ‘don’t really bear any resemblance to the reality’ of British troops’ sacrifice.
Reform MP Robert Jenrick said the president’s comments were ‘offensive and wrong’.
Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan, said it was ‘sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our Nato partners, held so cheaply’.
Mr Obese-Jecty, a former captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, added: ‘I saw firsthand the sacrifices made by British soldiers I served alongside in Sangin, where we suffered horrific casualties, as did the US Marines the following year.
‘I don’t believe US military personnel share the view of President Trump; his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies.’
Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan, chimed in, saying Trump’s claim ‘bears no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there’.
And Tan Dhesi, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, said the president’s comments were ‘appalling and an insult to our brave British servicemen and women, who risked life and limb to help our allies, with many making the ultimate sacrifice’.
Speaking on the BBC‘s Question Time, Labour MP Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, called it an ‘absolute insult’, adding: ‘How dare he say we weren’t on the frontline, how dare he. We have always been there whenever the Americans have wanted us, we have always been there.’
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘How dare he question their sacrifice?’
America is the only NATO member to have invoked the collective security provisions of its Article 5 clause – that an attack against one member is an attack on all.
That came after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, which led to a US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The UK suffered the second-highest number of military deaths in the Afghanistan conflict at 457. The US saw 2,461 deaths. America’s allies suffered 1,160 deaths during the conflict – around a third of the total coalition deaths.
US President Donald Trump delivers a speech during the Board of Peace session held as part of the 56th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte delivered a reality check to Donald Trump, telling him that one Nato soldier died for every two Americans in Afghanistan after the US President doubted the Western alliance
Speaking in Davos yesterday, the US President made a similar swipe against the 32-member military alliance, saying: ‘I know them all very well. I’m not sure that they’d be there. I know we’d be there for them. I don’t know that they would be there for us.’
Following the speech, Nato chief Rutte corrected the record to the US President, telling him: ‘There’s one thing I heard you say yesterday and today. You were not absolutely sure Europeans would come to the rescue of the US if you will be attacked. Let me tell you, they will, and they did in Afghanistan.’
Rutte’s rebuttal came after Trump called Denmark – which had the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces in Afghanistan – ‘ungrateful’ for US protection during the Second World War.
‘For every two Americans who paid the ultimate price, there was one soldier from another Nato country who did not come back to his family – from the Netherlands, from Denmark, and particularly from other countries,’ the Nato chief said.
‘So you can be assured, absolutely, if ever the United States were under attack, your allies will be with you. There is an absolute guarantee. I really want to tell you that because it pains me if you think it is not,’ Rutte told Trump.
