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Interestingly, it was Trump who once predicted that the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich wouldn’t be freed under President Biden read more
 "Trump bashes Biden-Harris over prison swap but his record shows...")
Former US President Donald Trump bashes Biden, Harris over prisoner swap deal with Russia
While the West rejoiced the arrival of their nationals in a historic prisoners-swap deal with Russia, former US President Donald Trump lambasted President Joe Biden and his administration over how they conducted the deal. Trump took to TruthSocial to bash the White House with baseless speculations.
Interestingly, it was Trump who once predicted that the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich wouldn’t be freed under President Biden. He had been using the wrongful detention of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in Russia as one of his strongest points against Biden in the 2024 US Presidential Elections campaign.
“So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia? How many people do we get versus them? Are we also paying them cash?” Trump wrote on TruthSocial Thursday. “Our ’negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us!” he wrote, without elaborating. “I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING – and never any cash,” he added.
White House gives clarification
Following Trump’s remarks, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan made it clear that there was no cash exchanged during the prisoner deal. He also confirmed that the United States also did not provide any sanction relief to Russia before, during and after the prisoner swap deal.
However, the former president doubled down on his claims and repeated false allegations that cash was involved in the deal during an interview on the “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.” In response, to Trump’s rant, Biden took direct jabs at his erstwhile opponent.
“Why didn’t he do it when he was president?” the president averred. So here’s a look at how Trump treated the US nationals imprisoned abroad, especially Russia.
How Trump reacted to the Paul Whelan case when he was the president
If we go back in time, one can see that not once did Trump mention Whelan’s name publicly while he was in office. However, the members of his administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the arrest of the former Marine over espionage charges in 2018.
The neglect from the then-president drew criticism from Whelan’s family. In a statement released on Thursday, David Whelan, Paul Whelan’s brother, said that his family was “discouraged from speaking out about Paul’s case,” when Trump was in office.
“Those first years were hard when the Trump Administration ignored Paul’s wrongful detention, and it was media attention that helped to finally create critical mass and awareness within the U.S. government,” he said. Not only this, Whelan made an appeal to former reality TV star directly, when US officials met him during his court trials.
“Mr President, we cannot keep America great unless we aggressively protect and defend Americans wherever they are in the world,” he said in prepared remarks in June 2019," the former Marine said at that time.
Despite all this, Trump only mentioned Whelan publically in 2022, when he was out of office, just to slam the Biden administration. “Why wasn’t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking.” Trump said in his post condemning Biden for arranging a prisoner swap for US basketball player Brittney Griner.
To get Griner, Washington exchanged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Trump went on to claim that he had been working on a deal for Whelan that involved Bout. “I turned down a deal with Russia for a one-on-one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan. I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals,” the former president wrote at that time.
However, Paul’s bother was quick to dismiss Trump’s claim at that time. “Former President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother #PaulWhelan’s wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by #Russia (zero). I don’t suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero),” David wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in December 2022.
Former President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother #PaulWhelan's wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by #Russia (zero). I don't suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero) https://t.co/7lnSF0zJxL
— David Whelan (@davidpwhelan) December 9, 2022Did Trump really ‘give up nothing’ to get US nationals back?
One thing that was common in his social media rants was the fact that Trump said he gave “nothing” to an opposition country to secure the “freedom of American prisoners”. However, the claims made by Trump were false.
In the year 2019, the Trump administration participated in prisoner swaps of two Western hostages, one American and one Australian. The hostages were freed by the Taliban after more than three years in captivity. In return, the then-Afghan government had to release three high-profile Taliban members.
In the year 2020, Iran released US Navy Veteran Michael White after nearly two years in custody as part of a prisoner deal negotiated with Tehran. As a part of the deal, the US freed a dual US-Iranian citizen, Matteo Taerri, a medical doctor who had been imprisoned on charges of evading sanctions.
In the same year, the Trump administration secured the release of, aid worker Sandra Loli and businessman Mikael Gidada. In exchange for this, the Trump government released more than 200 Houthi militants who were being held in Oman. Those Houthis were allowed to return to Yemen. Hence, it will be safe to say even Trump had to pay the price to get US nationals back.
With inputs from agencies.
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English (US) ·