\n \u201cThe GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America!\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s 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!\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The message came after furious reaction to comments the president made minimizing the role NATO forces played in Afghanistan. The president\u2019s remarks rankled US allies in NATO, coming at the end of a week in which he severely strained the alliance<\/a> through his threats to seize control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, another NATO member.\n <\/p>\n \n British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Prince Harry, who served in the conflict, were among those who criticized the comments, with Starmer calling them \u201cinsulting and frankly appalling.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Starmer later raised the issue on a call with Trump on Saturday, in which they discussed \u201cthe brave and heroic British and American soldiers who fought side by side in Afghanistan, many of whom never returned home,\u201d a Downing Street spokesperson said.\n <\/p>\n \n After the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, the US became the first and so far only NATO member to invoke Article 5<\/a>, which states that an attack against one member is an attack against all. For 20 years, NATO allies and other partner countries fought alongside US troops in Afghanistan.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ve never needed them,\u201d Trump said of NATO in an interview on Thursday with Fox Business. \u201cWe have never really asked anything of them. You know, they\u2019ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize,\u201d Starmer said Friday.\n <\/p>\n \n The White House initially shrugged off Starmer\u2019s criticism and insisted Trump was correct in his sentiments.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPresident Trump is absolutely right \u2014 the United States of America has done more for NATO than any other country in the alliance has done combined,\u201d Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, said when asked to respond to Starmer\u2019s comments.\n <\/p>\n \n Starmer and Trump in their call Saturday \u201cdiscussed the need for bolstered security in the Arctic,\u201d Downing Street said, after a tense week of diplomacy regarding Greenland and Trump\u2019s announcement of a \u201cframework deal<\/a>\u201d in relation to the autonomous territory.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe leaders discussed the importance of the UK-US relationship, which continues to stand the test of time,\u201d the Downing Street readout concluded. \u201cThey agreed to speak soon.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s social media post Saturday came amid intense backlash over his NATO comments.\n <\/p>\n \n Prince Harry, a veteran of two front-line tours in Afghanistan, said through his spokesperson that the sacrifices of NATO troops \u201cdeserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a staunch Trump ally<\/a>, disavowed his remarks.\n <\/p>\n \n Meloni wrote in a post on X on Saturday that the Italian government was surprised by Trump\u2019s comments.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cStatements that minimize the contribution of NATO countries in Afghanistan are unacceptable, especially if they come from an allied Nation,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Meloni said that Italy and the US remain \u201cbound by a solid friendship.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBut friendship requires respect, a fundamental condition for continuing to ensure the solidarity at the heart of the Atlantic Alliance,\u201d she continued.\n <\/p>\n \n Danish troops who fought alongside US forces expressed<\/a> a feeling of betrayal over Trump\u2019s remarks on NATO, compounded by the president\u2019s repeated threats to \u201cacquire\u201d Greenland<\/a> before walking them back this week.\n <\/p>\n \n While Trump praised British troops in his message Saturday, he made no mention of other NATO countries that lost troops over the two-decade conflict.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington, DC, and London \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 US President Donald Trump praised British troops Saturday after sustained outrage over comments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-428203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"British](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-22t131826z-1942030711-rc2d6jai8cuq-rtrmadp-3-usa-trump-greenland-britain-denmark.jpg\")
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