President Donald Trump has offered a follow-up to his controversial claim that NATO troops “stayed a little back, off the front lines” while serving alongside Americans in Afghanistan.
The comment was made during an interview on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo. While at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said that he was “not sure of” whether other NATO countries would be there if the United States needed military aid. That’s when he took the following shot.
Related: NATO Chief Says to Brace for World War With Russia
Trump on NATO: “I’ve always said, will they be there if we ever needed them? That’s really the ultimate test. I’m not sure of that. 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… pic.twitter.com/fA0i1S3LxY
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 22, 2026
TRUMP: I’ve always said, will they be there if we ever needed them? And that’s really the ultimate test, and I’m not sure of that. I know that we would have been there, or we would be there, but will they be there? And let’s hope that that never happens. We’ve never needed them. 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, off the front lines, but we’ve been very good to Europe and many other countries.
One of the things about Trump is that he’s always in adversarial mode. Blame him or blame the conditions around him, but sometimes it leads to him generalizing in ways that are genuinely untrue about those he sees as opponents, and right now, he sees NATO as an opponent. Not militarily, but politically, due to so many members refusing to meet their contribution goals. It’s a valid complaint, and he’s right to apply pressure, but the assertion about NATO troops in Afghanistan staying off the front lines was not something he should have said.
The United Kingdom actually had a higher death ratio than American troops did in the war, losing almost 500 soldiers. For its part, Denmark had the highest per-capita death rate of any nation involved. Canadian troops also faced higher statistical risks compared to the country’s total deployment. Some of that can be explained by superior American training and equipment, but regardless, it’s simply false to say that the aforementioned countries stayed off the frontlines.
I think Trump, hearing the backlash, realized it was time to clean things up. He put out a post on Saturday praising the United Kingdom’s sacrifices in the war and stating that the bond between the two nations is “too strong to ever be broken.”
Trump: The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America! In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors. It’s a bond too strong to ever be broken. The U.K. Military, with… pic.twitter.com/iTn6CNw5eb
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 24, 2026
The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America! In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors. It’s a bond too strong to ever be broken. The U.K. Military, with tremendous Heart and Soul, is second to none (except for the U.S.A.!). We love you all, and always will.
Soak it in, because that’s as close to an apology as you’ll ever get from Trump, and honestly, I’m glad he did it. I understand the desire to whip NATO into some semblance of shape. At the same time, soldiers who sacrificed their lives shouldn’t be slighted over what amounts to a political fight. Trump, whether it was his intent or not, went too far, and it seems he realized that.
Of course, none of this absolves NATO of its current issues. While I have no doubt they’d respond to an invocation of Article 5, the question is what they’d show up with. The major European powers have allowed their militaries to wither while countries like Poland pass them by. The once great British Navy is a shell of its former self, while Germany, given its relative size and economic power, has a military that is far weaker than it should be. That has to change.
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