Trump on backfoot after backlash, praises UK troops as 'brave warriors'

US President Donald Trump spent Saturday hurriedly praising “brave” British soldiers and calling them “warriors”, apparently hoping that nobody remembered that 24 hours earlier, he had claimed European NATO troops basically hid behind American legs in Afghanistan — remarks that Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer found “insulting and appalling”.

Trump’s comments triggered widespread anger in Britain and across Europe after he asserted that European troops stayed off the front lines in Afghanistan — a claim that might have held up if nobody in Britain had access to either memory or Google.

For context, Britain lost 457 service personnel in Afghanistan — its deadliest overseas conflict since the 1950s — and for years, led the allied campaign in Helmand, the country’s biggest and most violent province, while also fighting alongside the US in Iraq. Hardly a case of “staying back a little”.

Realising belatedly that insulting dead soldiers tends not to play well, Trump rushed onto Truth Social to announce: “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.”

One could almost hear the sound of frantic advisers Googling casualty figures off-screen.

The Sun on Sunday reported that even King Charles had concerns about Trump’s initial remarks, and that these concerns were “relayed” to the president — the same president who last year professed admiration for the monarch on a state visit. Buckingham Palace, naturally, declined to comment.

Trump’s effort at clean-up also provoked an unusually direct reaction from Starmer, who usually avoids personalised criticism. Downing Street confirmed the prime minister raised the issue directly with the president on Saturday, saying: “The prime minister raised the brave and heroic British and American soldiers who fought side by side in Afghanistan, many of whom never returned home. We must never forget their sacrifice.”

Meanwhile, veterans in Britain and elsewhere have been lining up to explain to Trump that yes, actually, they were on the front lines. Among those speaking out was Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan and politely declined to indulge Trump’s fantasy version of NATO, saying: “Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”

Trump’s original comments came on Fox Business Network’s 'Mornings with Maria' on Thursday, where he bragged that the US had “never needed” the transatlantic alliance and that allies hung back “a little off the front lines”, prompting the sort of response that suggests Europeans are growing tired of being lectured on NATO by a man who often forgets what NATO actually is.

With agency inputs