Trump claimed no U.S. troops had died in Afghanistan in 18 months. Here’s a fact check.

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed during the campaign over the past two months that no soldiers have died in the war in Afghanistan during his 18 months in office.

Although Defense Department data shows that no U.S. service members have been killed in combat in Afghanistan over the past 18 months, Trump was not in office for the entire period.

The Republican presidential candidate originally made the claim years ago, but he repeated it multiple times recently as the United States marked three years since the August 2021 Abbey Gate suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport. A lone ISIS suicide bomber killed Thirteen American soldiers and about 170 Afghans during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that took place months after President Biden took office.

“When I left office, we had not lost a single soldier in combat in Afghanistan for over 18 months,” Trump said at a rally in North Carolina on Aug. 21.

“We hadn’t lost a single person in 18 months, and then they took over this disaster,” Trump said in a campaign video posted to TikTok on Aug. 28. Trump’s voice was played over footage of him speaking to Gold Star families during his final controversial journey to Arlington National Cemetery, which has gained a rare reprimand from the U.S. Army. The video has since amassed approximately 11.8 million views. The original audio in the video, which included a sample of the Bon Iver and St. Vincent song, has since been removed.

There was no 18-month period during the Trump presidency when there were no combat or hostile casualties in Afghanistan, according to government data from the Defense Casualty Analysis System.

The last soldiers to die in combat in Afghanistan under Trump were Sergeant 1st Class Javier Jaguar Gutierrez and Sergeant 1st Class Antonio Rey Rodriguez, who was killed on Feb. 8, 2020. Later that month, Trump and the Taliban reached an agreement that excluded the Afghan government and called for U.S. forces to leave the country by May 1, 2021.

Then came a period of about 18 months from March 2020 to the end of August 2021 in which no U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan. Mr. Trump was in office for about 11 months of that period, and Mr. Biden was in office for the last seven months.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the discrepancy.

There have been no combat fatalities since Mr. Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021, until U.S. forces began withdrawing from the longest war in American history, a plan initiated by Mr. Trump before he left office.

In the final full 18 months of Trump’s presidency, beginning in July 2019, there were 12 reported combat deaths in Afghanistan. There were 45 reported combat deaths in Afghanistan during Trump’s entire term.

During the 20-year war in Afghanistan that began after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, more than 1,900 soldiers were classified as “enemy fatalities” as a result of combat operations in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. A total of 2,459 U.S. soldiers died during the operations.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed the date of Trump’s rally in North Carolina. The rally was Aug. 21.