Trump laments that American soldiers no longer 'fight to win'

President Donald Trump slammed the American military Monday, complaining the U.S. doesn't "fight to win."

"Win. We have to win. We have to start winning wars again," Trump said. "I have to say, when I was young, in high school and college, everybody used to say that we never lost a war. 'We never lost a war.' You remember."

"And now we never win a war," Trump added. "We never win. And we don't fight to win."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Trump added that the war in the Middle East has gone "nowhere. Actually, if you think about it, we're less than nowhere."

"Soldiers serving [abroad] and at home right now heard this," pointed out MTV News' Jamil Smith.

President Trump attended a military academy, but never served in the armed forces. He received a total of five draft deferments in the Vietnam War, including one for bone spurs in his heels, The New York Times reports. Trump has been previously criticized for being insensitive to the sacrifices made by service members and their families for the country: "You have sacrificed nothing and no one," said Khizr Khan, the father of an American soldier killed in Iraq, at the Democratic National Convention last year.