RUSSIA, TRUMP CONGRATULATES PUTIN AFTER PRISONER SWAP: “GREAT DEAL”
Donald Trump congratulates Vladimir Putin on the historic prisoner exchange that the former American president considers a “victory” for the Russian leader. At a rally in Atlanta, Trump did not explicitly name any of the released Americans. “I want to congratulate Putin on making another great deal,” said the tycoon who is aiming to return to the White House. “Fifty-nine hostages, I never paid anything. Guys, we make horrible deals, really bad deals. It’s nice to say ‘we brought them home,’ without saying that this is a terrible precedent.”
Among those released under the agreement is also the journalist of Wall Street JournalEvan Gershkovich. Trump was reticent to talk about it during the first year of his detention, but then in May he called for his release. And on several occasions in recent months he has said he would secure the reporter’s release if elected next November, a step he has argued Putin would have done it “for me, and for no one else.”
In recent days, he has challenged the historic agreement, which involved at least 24 people and seven countries, on Truth and then in an interview with Fox. Trump, according to the Washington Post, authorized a deal to pay North Korea $2 million for medical expenses in the release of Otto Warmbier, the American student freed by Pyongyang in 2017. Trump has always maintained that nothing was ever paid. Warmbier died shortly after returning to the U.S.
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