Rubin: Trump’s slurs of allied soldiers who died in Afghanistan shake NATO

Words matter.

With his nonstop litany of lies and insults, President Donald Trump appears to believe no one will remember what he said yesterday or last week (perhaps he can’t recall, either).

Yet, just as Americans won’t forget how Kristi Noem smeared Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” European allies won’t forget the most outrageous slur Trump hurled at them at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

It was a falsehood so painful that it drew criticism from European political parties of the left and right, and even provoked a private caution from Britain’s King Charles III.

It was an insult so outrageous that it has probably alienated the British and other European publics more than any previous Trump attack.

Trump, a man who avoided Vietnam service by claiming he had bone spurs, spat on the sacrifice of European soldiers who died fighting alongside American troops in Afghanistan.

In his Davos speech, Trump mocked NATO and questioned whether the alliance would “be there for us” if the United States needed help — even though European members of NATO rushed to support the U.S. in the wake of 9/11.

Adding insult to injury, the president falsely claimed on Fox News that the NATO allies “stayed … off the front lines” in Afghanistan.

Tell that to the families of the 1,160 allied troops who died in the hottest Afghan combat zones, alongside 2,461 fallen Americans. That’s not counting the many thousands of wounded.

Although the U.S. military took the highest losses, many smaller NATO members came close to or even exceeded the proportion of dead to their population.

‘Shameful comments’

Imagine how Trump’s words affected the mother of Danish machine-gunner Sophia Bruun, killed in action in 2010 at the age of 22, who fought alongside British army troops in the battlefront province of Helmand.

Denmark, with 44 dead, some from Greenland, and a population of only 5 million, suffered the highest per capita casualties in the allied coalition. (Yet, even as he denigrated the Danish dead, Trump was demanding that Copenhagen, long one of America’s closest allies, turn over Greenland to the United States.)

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns nailed it when he tweeted: “Shameful comments, I visited NATO troops in Afghanistan. Denmark and Canada fought on the front lines with us and suffered major casualties. We need our allies but are driving them away.”

After Trump’s denigration of fallen allies, social media was inundated with photos of the fallen and their grieving families, along with pictures of Brits, Canadians, Norwegians, Danish and other allies bearing the caskets of their war dead back to their home countries.

Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen, who fought with U.S. Marines in Helmand and was nearly killed when his tank was destroyed, told the Associated Press: “When America needed us after 9/11, we were there. As a veteran and as a Dane, you feel sad and very surprised that the U.S. wants to take over part of the Kingdom of Denmark.”

“It’s a betrayal of the loyalty of our nation to the U.S. and to our common alliance, NATO,” he said.

‘Insulting and appalling’

The Brits, who lost 457 troops and sent 150,000 personnel to Afghanistan over the course of the U.S.-led war, were even more viscerally upset by Trump’s scorn for the sacrifices of their service members.

British media was full of angry comments by families of the dead and wounded, like those of Diane Dernie, whose son sustained horrific injuries in Afghanistan in 2006, and who spoke to the Guardian. She urged British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “call Trump out” and said his comments were “beyond belief.”

Starmer did call Trump out, stating bluntly, “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I’m not surprised they caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.” The British leader called for a Trump apology. None has been offered.

Prince Harry, who served two frontline tours in Afghanistan, also weighed in, stating that the “sacrifices” of British soldiers “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”

But it was only when Charles III privately conveyed his concerns to the monarch-loving Trump that the president did an about-face and publicly complimented the “GREAT and VERY BRAVE” British forces.

But an apology? Nope, nada. Not even to the king.

‘It’s reprehensible’

Nor has POTUS apologized to the American fighters who battled alongside Brits, Canadians, Danes and other allied forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, and feel insulted, as well.

I asked best-selling author Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine and CIA special activities officer who served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for Valor, how Trump’s words affected him.

“It’s beneath the dignity of his office to question the contributions of military allies who came to our aid and spilt their blood, particularly for a commander in chief who has never served,” Ackerman responded. “If I were the mother of a British Marine who died in Helmand …” He hesitated, then continued: “It’s reprehensible. It’s gross.”

Of course, it’s even more grotesque given that, during his first term, Trump sneered at Americans who died in war as “losers and suckers,” and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades. As Ackerman noted, “If given the opportunity, he will disdain the U.S. military when it serves his purpose.” The former Marine recalled how Trump insulted Sen. John McCain for having been captured in Vietnam, and now disparages former combat aviator and astronaut Sen. Mark Kelly.

Indeed, Trump’s shameful insults to allied troops are a reflection of how he has misused U.S. armed forces, sending National Guard members into cities to chase peaceful immigrants, and letting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serve as a rogue militia for the White House’s political ends. He is slightly backing off from the ICE scandal in Minneapolis only because the militia’s sins are costing him polling points.

With his sneers at foreign troops who sacrificed for America, Trump has done more than alienate America’s closest allies. His words send a message to all Americans: POTUS admires soldiers, both U.S. and foreign, not for what they can do for our country, but only for what they can do for him.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist for the The Philadelphia Inquirer. ©2026 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.