Trump’s reward comes after UK prime minister referred to as the US chief’s remarks ‘insulting’ and advised he apologise.
Printed On 24 Jan 2026
United States President Donald Trump has praised UK troopers a day after receiving a uncommon rebuke from United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer over comments he made about European troops staying “somewhat off the entrance traces” within the warfare in Afghanistan.
In an obvious bid to ease tensions with Starmer, Trump took to social media on Saturday to acknowledge that 457 UK troopers had died in Afghanistan, with many others badly wounded, describing them as being “among the many biggest of all warriors”.
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“The GREAT and really BRAVE troopers of the UK will at all times be with the USA of America!” he wrote. “It’s a bond too sturdy to ever be damaged.”
Starmer stated on Friday that Trump’s comments to US broadcaster Fox Information on the margins of the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, have been “insulting and, frankly, appalling”.
Requested whether or not he would demand an apology from Trump, Starmer stated, “If I had misspoken in that approach or stated these phrases, I will surely apologise.”
Whereas Trump’s response stopped in need of an apology, his olive department got here after he spoke to the UK chief earlier on Saturday, based on a press release from Starmer’s workplace.
“The prime minister raised the courageous and heroic British and American troopers who fought aspect by aspect in Afghanistan, lots of whom by no means returned dwelling,” the assertion stated. “We should always remember their sacrifice, he stated.”
King Charles’s youthful son, Prince Harry, who served two excursions in Afghanistan, additionally weighed in on Friday, saying the “sacrifices” of UK troopers through the warfare “need to be spoken about honestly and with respect”.
The UK was not the one NATO ally to specific anger at Trump’s remarks. Different European leaders, together with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron, reacted sharply on Saturday.
Alongside the US and UK forces have been troops from dozens of nations, together with from NATO, whose collective security clause, Article 5, had been triggered for the primary time after the assaults on New York and Washington in September 2001.
Greater than 150 Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan, together with 90 French service personnel and dozens from Germany, Italy, Denmark and different international locations.
The US reportedly misplaced greater than 2,400 troopers.
At the least 46,319 Afghan civilians died as a direct results of the 2001 invasion, based on a 2021 estimate by Brown College’s Prices of Warfare venture.
