LONDON
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned former U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, demanding an apology for what he called “insulting” and “frankly appalling” remarks that non-American NATO troops avoided front-line combat in Afghanistan.
Trump, speaking in an interview Thursday, claimed NATO allies “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” during the war—a statement that triggered immediate outrage in the United Kingdom and across the alliance.
“We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them,” Trump said of non-U.S. NATO forces during an interview with Fox Business Network in Davos.
The comments starkly contradict the historical record.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 was supported by a broad international coalition, including numerous NATO allies, under the alliance’s first-ever invocation of its mutual-defense clause.
Thousands of British and other NATO troops served—and died—in intense combat operations throughout the 20-year conflict.
Starmer’s sharp rebuke reflects growing diplomatic unease over Trump’s rhetoric toward NATO and its collective sacrifices, even as the former president remains a dominant figure in U.S. politics.
By James Kisoo
