Trump congratulates Putin for ‘great deal’ on prisoner swap

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump slammed the prisoner exchange negotiated this week that freed three Americans and one American green card holder from Russia.

Trump was speaking at a Saturday rally in Atlanta, where he lambasted the Biden-Harris administration for releasing “some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world” to Russia in exchange for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.

“I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal,” Trump said.

Eight Russians were released by Western countries as part of the agreement, including Vadim Krasikov, a former high-ranking FSB colonel who was convicted of murdering a former Chechen fighter in Berlin in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison. Three of the other seven Russians were released from U.S. prisons.

Without naming the Americans who have since returned home, the former president said it was “nice to say we got ‘em back” but that the deal “set a bad precedent.”

“We got our people back, but boy, we made some horrible, horrible deals,” Trump said.

On Thursday, within hours of the news of the exchange, the Republican nominee posted a series of questions about the conditions of the deal in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“So when are they going to release the details of the prisoner swap with Russia?” Trump wrote. “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!”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday that Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the general election, was “very much a core member of the team that helped make this happen.” Both she and President Joe Biden celebrated the return of Gershkovich, Whelan, and Kurmasheva in their own remarks that day.

“I don’t buy this idea that you’re going to let these people rot in jail because other people may be captured,” Biden said when asked about his message to other countries who may unlawfully detain Americans to get what they want. “We’ve sent out all the notifications to all our citizens of countries not to go to, what to do, what not to do, and they’ve got to pay attention.”

Trump’s comments come one day after he vowed not to debate Harris on ABC, instead pitching a Fox News debate, which would take place Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania with a live audience. The vice president is still committed to the Sept. 10 date, which the Trump and Biden campaigns agreed to with ABC News in May.