'Trust has been eroded': Trump's NATO troop remarks have shaken allied veterans
- - 'Trust has been eroded': Trump's NATO troop remarks have shaken allied veterans
Freddie ClaytonFebruary 1, 2026 at 4:36 AM
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Lance Cpl. Cassidy Little in Peterborough, England, on Wednesday. (Andrew Testa for NBC News) (Andrew Testa for NBC News)
PETERBOROUGH, England — Helmand province's shades of yellow, cookies wrapped in pink foil and southern Afghanistan's sweaty heat have imprinted on Lance Cpl. Cassidy Little's mind.
But then his memory of that day in May 2011 fractures. One moment he was walking through an unsecured compound with his patrol, the next he was on his back, staring into swirling dust and black smoke, his body unresponsive. He had been hit by the blast from an improvised explosive device, buried underground for months.
“I felt like I had dust from my tonsils to my prostate,” Little, 44, told NBC News this week in Peterborough, a cathedral city 75 miles north of London. As a trained medic, Little pressed a fellow Royal Marine Commando to be honest about the damage to his right leg. Eventually, he received the reply: “It’s gone.”
The same explosion killed two of Little’s friends and an interpreter as their patrol pushed into a hostile area not yet controlled by NATO — part of the same allied mission that President Donald Trump denigrated last week.
“They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, and they did,” Trump said. “They stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
Top: British Marines during an anti-Taliban operation near Kajaki in the Afghan province of Helmand in 2007. Below, the troops run toward a Taliban position during a British commando offensive. (John Moore / Getty Images) (John Moore)
Taking long pauses as he spoke and appearing to rein in his frustration, Little responded to Trump's comments that cast doubt on whether NATO allies would be there for America “if we ever needed them.”
“When I was hit, I was so far in front of the front line that I couldn’t see the front line in my rearview mirror,” he said.
Trump's assertions about NATO forces not coming to the United States' defense are incorrect: More than 1,000 NATO troops from more than 25 countries, including 457 British service personnel, died in Afghanistan. Double that number were seriously wounded. Around 2,400 U.S. service members died in the conflict between 2001 and 2021.
The war, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., remains the only time that the alliance's collective defense clause, known as Article 5, has been invoked.
After stoking outrage among Britons that ranged from Prince Harry to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump sought to backtrack.
Trump praised British troops as “among the greatest of all warriors” in a post on Truth Social, while stopping short of an apology.
For Little, who now works as an actor while serving as an ambassador for a veterans welfare group, Trump's comments sparked an initial surge of anger before he forced himself to calm down. But the President's appraisal of British troops, without mentioning the dozens of other nations who lost soldiers during the conflict, was “not an apology,” he said.
“I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Estonians, I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Danish," he said, sitting in a vape shop and cafe, in a corner of the room dedicated to veterans. "These are people that I’ve served with on the ground, including the Americans and the Canadians.”
Lance Cpl. Cassidy Little in 2011, left, and now. (Courtesy of Cassidy Little; Andrew Testa for NBC News) (Courtesy of Cassidy Little; Andrew Testa for NBC News)
Trump’s remarks caused fury across Europe and NATO countries, reopening old wounds and casting fresh doubt on the future of an alliance that has already cost so much for people like Little.
Alice Rufo, the minister delegate at the French Defense Ministry, laid a wreath at a monument in downtown Paris on Monday dedicated to those who died for France in overseas operations. Speaking to reporters, she said it was crucial to show that “we do not accept that their memory be insulted.”
Denmark lost 44 soldiers in Afghanistan, a higher number of fatalities than any other ally apart from the U.S. when taken as a proportion of its population of less than 6 million.
Denmark's veterans gather for a "silent demonstration march" from Kastellet in Copenhagen to the American embassy in Copenhagen on January 31. (Emil Nicolai Helms / AFP - Getty Images) (Emil Nicolai Helms)
Denmark's leaders described Trump’s comments as deeply disrespectful to allied sacrifices, and veterans joined a silent march in the capital, Copenhagen, braving sub-zero temperatures on Saturday to decry the President's remarks.
A minute of silence was also observed outside the U.S. embassy, where earlier this week veterans had placed a flag for each Danish soldier killed in the conflict.
Danish flags are placed in front of the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, some with names of fallen soldiers or soldiers who returned after serving with American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, on Wednesday. (Martin Sylvest Andersen; Emil Nicolai Helms / Getty Images) (Martin Sylvest Andersen; Emil Nicolai Helms)Backlash
In Britain, Starmer — usually deliberately careful in his dealings with the Trump — called the comments “insulting and frankly appalling,” saying he was not surprised they had caused “such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.”
Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, said the sacrifices of allied troops “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect,” adding: “I served there. I lost friends there.”
Prince Harry patrols through the deserted town of Garmisir in 2008 in Helmand province. (John Stillwell / Anwar Hussein Collection via Getty Images) (John Stillwell)
Nikki Scott’s husband, Corp. Lee Scott, was killed in Afghanistan while serving in the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, leaving behind his wife and two children.
Holding a black book containing briefing notes that her husband had taken, she said in a video posted on LinkedIn: “I believe in the difference he and all our armed forces made, and no one should tell us otherwise.”
The sweeping response speaks to wider concerns about what Trump's stance could mean for the future of NATO and its relationship with the U.S., already under increasing strain with Russia seeking to test the alliance’s resolve.
“Equivocation from Washington weakens deterrence, emboldens Moscow, and risks persuading soldiers on the ground that NATO no longer carries the saliency or seriousness it once did,” said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London.
“While the remarks change little for soldiers fighting in Ukraine,” he said, “strategically, they are deeply corrosive.”
Little recalls the commitment of NATO forces firsthand after the attacks on the U.S. in 2001, and the contrast between that reality and political rhetoric gives him pause.
“For the rest of us that were up front, getting pulled apart, losing dads and brothers and husbands, we heard the call, we came running, and we happily went out there,” he said.
“The trust that NATO has America’s back has not been eroded. What’s been eroded here is the trust that America has ours.”
Lance Cpl. Cassidy Little. (Andrew Testa for NBC News) (Andrew Testa for NBC News)
Source: “AOL Breaking”
