In the furore following the prisoner swap that saw Brittney Griner returned to the US from Russia, Donald Trump has confirmed that he rejected a proposal to bring home former US Marine Paul Whelan on the same basis.
Specifically, Mr Trump confirmed that he refused to secure Mr Whelan’s return by releasing Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is returning to Russia in exchange for Ms Griner.
“I turned down a deal with Russia for a one-on-one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan,” the former president wrote on Truth Social. “I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals.
“I would have gotten Paul out, however, just as I did with a record number of other hostages. The deal for Griner is crazy and bad. The taking wouldn’t have even happened during my Administration, but if it did, I would have gotten her out, fast!”
Mr Trump’s post overlooks the fact that Mr Whelan was “taken” during his administration – and his claim that he “would have gotten Paul out” was contradicted this weekend in an interview by Fiona Hill, his former adviser on Russian issues who has spoken out in detail about the former president’s shortcomings in that area.
“He was not particularly interested in Paul’s case in the way that one would have thought he would be,” she told Face the Nation on Sunday.
The same sentiment was shared by Mr Whelan’s brother David on MSNBC, where he recalled that that the former president was not “prepared to” or “interested in” working toward his brother’s release.
“I think the first two years, partly I think the Trump administration was not prepared to or not interested in working on wrongful detention cases,” he said.
The right-wing reaction to the Griner-Bout swap has been generally disdainful, partly because of Ms Griner’s supposed inconsequentiality and her identity as a Black queer woman, but Mr Bout’s own record is a major part of the condemnation too.
A former Soviet military officer and notorious international arms dealer nicknamed the “Merchant of Death”, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2012 by an American judge for attempting to sell 100 portable surface-to-air missiles and around 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles to US officials posing as Colombian rebels.
