Trump prompts outrage with claim Nato troops avoided frontline in Afghanistan | Donald Trump

Donald Trump has provoked outrage among British MPs and veterans after claiming Nato troops stayed away from the frontline in Afghanistan.

The US president made his comments in an interview with Fox News in which he reiterated his suggestion that Nato would not support the US if asked.

His remarks drew condemnation from across the political spectrum, with critics pointing to the 457 British deaths in Afghanistan and highlighting Trump’s avoidance of military service in Vietnam.

A total of 3,486 Nato troops died in the 20-year conflict, of which 2,461 were US service personnel. Canada suffered 165 deaths, including civilians.

Denmark, which has been at loggerheads with the US over Trump’s designs on Greenland, had 44 combat deaths in Afghanistan, the most per capita outside the US.

In the interview with Fox News, Trump said: “We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.”

Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan, said Trump’s claim “bears no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there”.

The Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, said it was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our Nato partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States”.

Tan Dhesi, the chair of the Commons defence committee, said the US president’s comments were “appalling and an insult to our brave British servicemen and women, who risked life and limb to help our allies, with many making the ultimate sacrifice”.

The foreign affairs committee chair, Emily Thornberry, described the comments as “so much more than a mistake”, and “an insult” to the families of those who had died.

Trump has previously been criticised for avoiding being conscripted to fight in Vietnam after being diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels – a medical claim that has been subject to significant doubt.

Stephen Stewart, a former soldier and an author and journalist, said: “Trump’s comments are as offensive as they are inaccurate. It’s hugely ironic that someone who allegedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam war should make such a disgraceful statement.

“He has desecrated the memory of hundreds of British soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, people who we called friends and comrades. If he was a man of honour, he would get down on bended knees to ask forgiveness from the families of the fallen.”

The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said on X: “Trump avoided military service 5 times. How dare he question their sacrifice. Farage and all the others still fawning over Trump should be ashamed.”

Bailey added: “As I reminded the US forces I served with on 4 July in 2008, we were there because of a shared belief, articulated at America’s founding, that free people have inalienable rights and should not live under tyranny. That belief underpinned the response to 9/11, and it is worth reflecting on now.”

The US remains the only country to have invoked article 5 of Nato’s collective security provision, activated after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.