Trump can't be happy Russian prisoners are home because it's not about him: columnist
President Joe Biden worked with international leaders to bring home three Americans and one Green Card holder from Russian prisons, but the move prompted anger and disgust from Donald Trump.
MSNBC producer Steve Benen cited the bombshell news that Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, were able to use diplomatic relationships to secure the release of the prisoners.
"It’s quite likely that Biden realizes that Thursday’s developments, and his role in making them happen, won’t soon be forgotten," Benen celebrated.
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Trump, by contrast, stewed.
"It would’ve been easy for the Republican nominee to celebrate the return of Americans who’d been unjustly detained by Russia, but the former president instead published a biting missive to his social media platform, posing a series of barbed questions that made his annoyance clear," said Benen.
Trump questioned the deal, implying that the U.S. had to give up a lot more than Russia to secure the release. The ex-president's brand is all about deal-making. His top-performing book, ghostwritten by journalist Tony Schwartz, purports to have mastered "The Art of the Deal."
"We never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps," complained Trump.
In May, Trump claimed on Truth Social that when he is elected president, he will get Evan Gershkovich back without anything to trade because Russian President Vladimir Putin would do it as a favor "for me, but not for anyone else." It proved to be untrue. Putin didn't get any money for the deal, either, as Trump prophecied. Still, Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), claimed it was all thanks to Trump the prisoners came home.
The worst, Benen said, came in a second post from Trump where he bashed the negotiators as an "embarrassment."
"I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing country NOTHING," said Trump.
Indeed, Trump approved multiple prisoner exchanges, but not for nothing. A CNN fact-check of his 2019 swap with Iran for Princeton University PhD student Xiyue Wang says it came only because Trump agreed to release an Iranian medical scientist accused of trying to smuggle biological material to Iran.
Three high-ranking Taliban prisoners were released in 2019 for the U.S. to get two professors abducted in 2016.
In 2020, Trump got a Navy veteran in exchange for an Iranian-American doctor. His 2020 exchange with Iran-backed Houthis ensured aid workers and businessmen held in Oman were exchanged for 200 militants being held in Oman.
Trump got Israel to give up a Turkish citizen in 2018 who'd aided Hamas so he could get an American pastor back.
Benen pointed the focus on Trump's instinct "to whine about good news for his own country."
First, he said, Trump can't claim any credit for the effort. While Trump said Putin would do it as a "favor" to him when he was elected, that's clearly not what happened.
Similarly, Benen said that there's no way Trump could have pulled off the efforts. He explained that the work that was done was clearly a diplomatic deal with Germany. He had several clashes with the country's former chancellor, Angela Merkel, as Vogue reported after the election in 2020.
Finally, Benen explained, "The agreement was the result of alliances that Biden strengthened, and Trump intends to weaken." Namely, the NATO allies who spent the week before in the United States. On the Andrews Air Force Base tarmac, Biden said late Thursday night that the accomplishment came from a "feat of diplomacy."