There’s one American who must be angry about the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and 23 other Westerners from prisons in Russia and elsewhere. That angry American is Donald Trump.
Trump has bragged, as he has done when speaking of many problems, that only he could solve the problem. Back in May, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that Gershkovich
will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, would do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!
Few social media posts, even from Trump’s hand, have aged so poorly.
AdvertisementWe don’t yet know the precise details of the deal, or why Putin and President Joe Biden’s team of negotiators have struck it now, but a few inferences can be drawn.
First, and most obviously, it seems that we don’t need Trump as a savior to wrest the nation’s foreign policy from the bungling clutches of Team Biden. It turns out that sometimes Biden & Co. know what they’re doing.
Second, today’s prisoner-exchange refutes Trump’s most basic premise—and deepest misunderstanding—about........