Donald Trump doesn’t seem the least bit happy about the release of three American citizens who were wrongfully imprisoned in Russia. Why? Probably because he had nothing to do with it.
The White House announced Thursday that “three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza.”
In total, the exchange freed 16 people imprisoned in Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who had been political prisoners in their own country. The U.S. worked alongside Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey to secure the deal, according to the statement.
The Wall Street Journal, where Gershkovich works, has dubbed it “the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.” But rather than celebrate, Trump took to Truth Social Thursday to whine that he was not on the inside of brokering the gargantuan deal.
“So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia?” Trump wrote—the first of his many questions.
“How many people do we get versus them? Are we also paying them cash? Are they giving us cash (Please withdraw that question, because I’m sure the answer is NO)? Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs?”
“Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps. Our ‘negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us! I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING—and never any cash. To do so is bad precedent for the future. That’s the way it should be, or this situation will get worse and worse. They are extorting the United States of America. They’re calling the trade ‘complex’—That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s anti-diplomacy pearl-clutching is not only inane, it is also hypocritical. His own administration facilitated several prisoner swaps during his time in office.
In 2019, the Trump administration oversaw the release of three senior Taliban leaders imprisoned in Afghanistan, in exchange for one American, Kevin King, and Timothy Weeks, an Australian. One month later, the U.S. freed Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist convicted of export violations, in exchange for the return of Xiyue Wang, a Princeton graduate student held in Iran.
In October 2020, one of Trump’s deputy assistants agreed to free 250 Houthi rebels being held in Oman, in exchange for two Americans, Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada, who were held hostage by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen.
Two years later, Trump lied, bragging that, while in office, he’d secured the release of 58 hostages without giving anything in return.
It’s entirely likely that Trump is suffering from some kind of diplomatic FOMO. At CNN’s infamous presidential debate in June, Trump promised that he would free Gershkovich before he even took office.
“As soon as I win the election, I will have that reporter out,” he said, not referring to Gershkovich by name, instead calling him a “good guy.”
Trump alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin had demanded “billions of dollars” for Gershkovich’s release but failed to produce any evidence to support that claim. Rather, Putin has repeatedly indicated that he wanted one person in particular: Vadim Krasikov, a former intelligence officer who had shot a rebel leader in Berlin in 2019.
Despite the fact that Trump never got the chance to follow through on his flimsy promise, that hasn’t stopped his sycophants from tossing him some credit anyway.
