(The Hill) — Former President Donald Trump demanded more details surrounding the massive prisoner swap Thursday that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan from Russian custody.
Trump responded to the news by touting his own record of prisoner swaps in a post on Truth Social, while also questioning whether the U.S. gave cash in exchange for the once-detained Americans.
“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? Are they giving us cash (Please withdraw that question, because I’m sure the answer is NO)?” the former president asked in his post.
“Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs? Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps,” Trump added.
The former president continued, saying that giving an opposing country cash is a “bad precedent for the future.”
“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!” he wrote.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan pushed back on that notion in the White House briefing Thursday, saying no money was exchanged and no sanctions were loosened as part of the deal.
President Joe Biden revealed Thursday that Gershkovich and Whelan, alongside Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, were released as part of the largest prisoner swap with Russia since the Cold War. Five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were being held as political prisoners were also freed.
Trump has frequently criticized Biden over the detention of Americans in Russia and predicted that the president would not be able to secure the release of Gershkovich, who was detained in Russia for more than a year.
A reporter asked Biden on Thursday about Trump’s suggestion that he would have brought the detainees home without giving anything in exchange.
“Why didn’t he do it when he was president?” Biden replied.
