Donald Trump says the US has been treated “unfairly” by NATO – and made a shocking claim about the soldiers sent by the UK and other nations to help them in their war in Afghanistan
14:21, 22 Jan 2026Updated 14:38, 22 Jan 2026
Trump dismissed the sacrifice of UK troops who followed US into Afghanistan(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Donald Trump dismissed more than 400 British troops killed in Afghanistan with a vile insult as he continued his bid for greater control of Greenland.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump repeated his complaint that the US had been treated “unfairly” by Nato – despite the US being the only country ever to seek help from the group of nations under Article 5 of the Nato treaty.
Article 5 requires all member states to help defend any country that comes under attack – which the US invoked following 9.11 to amass a force to invade Afghanistan.
But Trump crassly dismissed this in the interview, saying: “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.”
Some 405 British servicemen and women lost their lives due to hostile action during the campaign in Afghanistan. More than 36,000 troops were sent from Nato member states by 2011, including around 9,500 from the UK, to join the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
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The UK provided the largest number of troops, and had by far the highest number of fatalities of any country other than the US.
Before backing off from on his designs on owning Greenland on Wednesday, he told an audience of CEOs and world leaders that Nato had treated the US “unfairly.”
“Nato has treated the United States of America very unfairly,” he said. “We never asked for anything. We never got anything. We actually took care of the needs of Nato for years and years, which I thought was unfair, so I got Nato to pay…I think it’s time for Nato to step up. We’re helping them with Ukraine. Without us Putin would have got all the way.”
British soldiers, very much on the front lines in Afghanistan(Image: Getty Images)
It’s not the first time Donald Trump has spoken dismissively of the sacrifice of troops who died for his country.
During his first term he was widely criticised for allegedly referring to American soldiers killed in action as “losers” and “suckers.”
He’s said to have cancelled a visit to a US cemetery during a visit to Paris in 2018 because he said it was “filled with losers”.
According to four sources who spoke to the Atlantic Magazine, he ruled out the trip because the rain would mess up his hair.
Later in the same trip, he reportedly referred to US soldiers who died at Belleau Wood as “suckers”. The battle helped to prevent a German advance on Paris during World War One and is venerated by the US Marine Corps.