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Statement: “For 18 months under President Trump, not a single American was harmed in Afghanistan.”
A social media post echoed a misleading claim former President Donald Trump made before about no U.S. service member deaths in Afghanistan over an 18-month period.
A July 2 Instagram post by conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel said, “For 18 months under President Trump, not a single American was harmed in Afghanistan.”
The Instagram post included a video clip from “The Sage Steele Podcast,” in which U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, told a story about Trump negotiating with Taliban leaders over a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Hunt said Trump threatened a Taliban leader, saying that if he harmed any American, he would kill him, then said, “Do you know for 18 months, not a single American was killed in Afghanistan?”
Hunt was correct in stating that after Trump and the Taliban reached a deal Feb. 29, 2020, to end the Afghanistan war, no U.S. service members were killed there for 18 months.
Gabriel, however, added the words, “under President Trump” and the words “not a single American was harmed” in her caption. Neither statement is accurate. Seven of the months of that stretch were under President Joe Biden’s administration. Also, Defense Department data show four service members died in what it categorized as “non-hostile deaths,” meaning not in combat, and three service members were wounded in combat from March 1, 2020, until Trump left office Jan. 20, 2021.
We contacted Gabriel through her organization Act for America, a group describing itself as a “grassroots movement dedicated to preserving America’s culture, sovereignty & security.” We received no response.
The last military service members killed in combat in Afghanistan during Trump’s presidency came Feb. 9, 2020, when two service members died in Nangarhar Province.
After that, no U.S. service members were killed in action in Afghanistan until Aug. 26, 2021, when suicide bombers attacked Kabul’s airport, killing 13 U.S. service members during the U.S. evacuation Biden oversaw.
So, it’s correct that in an 18-month stretch, no U.S. service members were harmed or died in combat. But Gabriel is incorrect to say Trump was in charge during that period.
Biden took office Jan. 20, 2021, and there were no U.S. service members killed until that Kabul airport attack in late August that year. That accounts for seven months of the 18-month stretch the Instagram post mentioned.
Also, the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System data show that four service members died in what it categorized as “non-hostile deaths,” meaning not in combat, and three service members were wounded in combat from March 1, 2020, until Trump left office Jan. 20, 2021. It’s unclear from this data and our search of news reports whether any U.S. civilians or contractors were killed during this period.
The Defense Department database gives no specifics about nonhostile deaths. At least two of those four service members died in vehicle accidents, one in July 2020 and one in November 2020. Two others died in what Defense Department news releases called “non-combat-related” incidents.
Before Trump’s deal with the Taliban, 45 U.S. service members were killed in combat during his presidency, from Jan. 20, 2017, until Feb. 29, 2020. During Biden’s presidency, there were the 13 service members killed in the 2021 Kabul attack and two nonhostile troop deaths in 2024, Defense Department data show.
Our ruling
Gabriel said, “For 18 months under President Trump, not a single American was harmed in Afghanistan.”
There is no 18-month stretch solely under the Trump administration in which no U.S. service members were killed. There was an 18-month span when no U.S. service member was killed, but Biden oversaw seven of those months. Also, some service members were wounded or died in noncombat deaths during Trump’s final 11 months in office. We rate the claim False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Our sources:
- Instagram post, July 2, 2024 (archived)
- Defense Casualty Analysis System, U.S. Military Casualties – Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS) Casualty Summary by Month and Service, accessed July 3, 2024
- The Associated Press, Kabul airport attack kills 60 Afghans, 13 US troops, Aug. 26, 2021
- U.S. State Department, Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America, Feb. 29, 2020
- Stars and Stripes, Fort Drum-based soldier dies in vehicle rollover accident in Afghanistan, July 5, 2020
- Air Force Times, Air Force doctor killed in vehicle accident in United Arab Emirates, Nov. 28, 2020
- Defense Department, DOD Identifies Army Casualty, July 13, 2020
- Defense Department, DOD Identifies Army Casualty, May 21, 2020
- The Associated Press, Trump misleads on Afghanistan casualties, May 17, 2022
