Rod Stewart slammed “draft dodger” Donald Trump following the president’s insulting remarks about NATO troops and their role in Afghanistan.
In a Fox News interview earlier this week, Trump once again criticized America’s NATO allies, downplaying their contribution in the war on terror. “We’ve never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them,” Trump said of NATO. “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that. And they did – they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
Trump’s comments drew the ire of European politicians, as well as his former friend and neighbor Sir Rod Stewart. “I may just be a humble rock star, I’m also a knight of the realm, and I have my opinions,” Stewart said in response to Trump’s comments in a video statement posted on social media.
“I was born just after [World War II], and I’d like respect for our armed forces who fought and gave us our freedom, so it hurts me badly, deeply, that I read the draft dodger Trump is criticizing our troops in Afghanistan for not being on the front line. We lost over 400 of our guys. Think of their parents, think about it, when Trump calls them almost like cowards. It’s unbearable.”
Stewart added, “I’m calling on you, Prime Minister [Keir] Starmer and [British politician and Trump supporter Nigel] Farage, please make the draft dodger Trump apologize. Please!” During the decades-long war on terror, 457 British troops were killed in Afghanistan.
While stopping short of asking Trump to apologize, Farage did challenge the president’s comments on social media, “Donald Trump is wrong. For 20 years our armed forces fought bravely alongside America’s in Afghanistan.”
Starmer, meanwhile, said of Trump’s remarks, “I will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice they made for their country. There were many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries. I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.”
