The US was at a disadvantage in a recent prisoner swap with Russia, the former president said
Former US President Donald Trump has criticized President Joe Biden’s prisoner swap deal with Moscow, suggesting Russian President Vladimir Putin got the better of the deal.
The US and Russia swapped a total of 26 prisoners held in various countries earlier this week in the largest such deal since the end of the Cold War. Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan – both convicted of espionage in Russia – were sent to the West, as were 14 other foreign agents, opposition activists and criminals.
In return, ten Russian citizens were sent to Moscow, including suspected intelligence agents and cybercriminals. The most prominent name on the list was Vadim Krasikov, an FSB agent who was convicted of the murder of a former Chechen militant commander in Germany in 2021.
“I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on making another great deal,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Georgia on Saturday. “Did you see the deal we made? They released some of the world’s greatest killers, some of the most evil killers they caught.”
“We got our people back, but boy, did we make some horrible, horrible deals,” he continued, adding that “It’s nice to say we got them back, but does that set a bad precedent?”
Before the swap, Trump claimed that only he could secure Gershkovich’s release. In a post on his Truth Social platform in May, he wrote that the Wall Street Journal reporter “will be released almost immediately after the election, but definitely before I take office,” and that the US would be “not paying anything” for your return.
With Gershkovich back in the US, Trump has changed his tune, arguing that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris – who is running against Trump for president – are inept negotiators who paid a heavy price for their freedom.
“We had 59 hostages, I never paid anything”, he told supporters on Saturday. However, while Trump has secured the release of dozens of American prisoners during his presidency without making any concessions, he has traded prisoners on several occasions. Among those deals were two one-for-one swaps with Iran and the 2019 exchange of an American and an Australian for three senior Taliban leaders held in an Afghan prison.