Trump Basques in the glow from the release of hostages Marc Fogel

Washington – presidents love to bask in the patriotic glow by bringing hostages home – no more than Donald Trump.

Negotiations on prisoners can be tough and prices can be high, and experts warn that it quickly gives hostages, the concessions they want give them incentives for additional kidnappings. But the immediate rewards are clear: Americans, regardless of party, want their countrymen back.

A trade that was executed on Tuesday, Marc Fogel returned to the United States after years of prison in Russia in exchange for Alexander Vinnik, who pleaded guilty to the United States for the money-out-of-the-out-of-the-out-of-time charges. Fogel, a teacher who was imprisoned for possessing marijuana, whom he used to treat chronic pain, carried an American flag across his shoulders as Trump greeted him in the White House on Tuesday night.

“He has made Americans home a highest priority, and people are responding to it,” the US special envoy to hostages, Adam Boehler, told journalists on Wednesday. “Usually he wants to strengthen his team. He says, ‘I want this person out.’ We come with opportunities. He approves them and then usually makes calls after “to ensure offers.

With the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatening and slightly apparent progress that has been made to end the war, Trump’s quiet movement this week can soften the relationship between Washington-Moskva. In turn, it can help lay the foundation of the deal Trump has promised to bring the hostilities in Europe to end.

“The smartest thing you can do to curry advantage of the president of the United States is to bring Americans home,” Boehler said. “He’s been aware of it.”

Administrative officials would not reveal what, if anything, otherwise Moscow may have achieved in the negotiations beyond Vinnik’s freedom. In the past, Russia has repeatedly refused to release detained Americans without receiving his citizens, which is of the utmost importance to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin, for example, insisted when the release of a Russian assassin who was imprisoned in Germany as part of a prisoner swap President Joe Biden’s administration negotiated last fall.

“The Trump administration has traditionally framed these victories as something they got without giving up,” said Dani Gilbert, an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University, studying hostages of hostages. “It’s really hard for me to imagine a world where the Trump administration’s statement about Ukraine in the last 48 hours wasn’t Quid Pro Quo to Fogel’s release.”

On Wednesday, the Trump Administration outlined new parameters for a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, far more generous than anyone from the Biden administration. In a speech in Brussels on Wednesday, Detailed Defense Defense Secretary Pete Hegeth frame, who seemed to favor Putin’s demand that Ukraine did not restore all its lost territory and that it is not admitted to NATO.

Trump also held separate phone calls Wednesday with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelenskyy, and he got his top national security assistants to negotiate an end to the war. Vice President JD Vance plans to meet with Zelenskyy this week on the sidelines for a security conference in Munich.

Republicans in Congress, with Trump’s support, interrupted US help to Ukraine in 2023. Democrats warned that Trump would give up Ukraine and give Putin a long sought -after victory. Trump has insisted that he secures a peace agreement that does not reward Moscow.

How it happened

Trump awarded Steve Witkoff, a long -time friend, who is his special envoy for the Middle East, to take the lead in the Russians on an agreement for Fogel. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, US officials have not engaged directly with Russian officials, except in rare cases of coordination between military leaders to avoid accidents in combat zones.

Trump’s blessing put a flurry of secret discussions across several governments, some involved the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as a interlocutor, culminating with Russia’s release of Fogel, a school teacher in Pennsylvania. Witkoff chartered his private flight to Moscow to pick him up.

“I got a call that he should be at the airport,” Witkoff said of Fogel on Wednesday. “And I called the president. He was happy. He said, ‘Come up quickly.’ “

While the effort took a few weeks, the 72 hours prior to Fogel’s release were the most critical and events unfolded quickly.

Around 1 p.m. At 17.40 on Monday, Witkoff’s aircraft from Dulles International Airport started in Virginia, which is headed directly towards Moscow.

It was 02:30 in Moscow when Witkoff and two helpers to Boehler touched the tarmac.

US officials were on Earth in western Russia for less than 11 hours, based on an analysis of the flight pattern in Witkoff’s private aircraft.

At the airport, they walked the fogel on the plane. After they waited for the plane to Deis, with Fogel on board, the flight from Moscow started that night on the way to joint base Andrews, Maryland. Fogel stood for a photograph that holds a drink and a cheese plate.

When the plane was out of the Russian airspace, Fogel called his family. “We all called back in the United States,” Witkoff said. “He made a jig.”

Witkoff’s portfolio can now expand to include US efforts to mediate an agreement to end the war.

“Witkoff would do what the president asked for him,” an official said in the White House.

Partisan benefit

Trump has secured the releases of 10 Americans held by foreign governments since he took office less than a month ago. This performance has delivered him Bipartisan Plaudits in the midst of a wider landscape of ideological warlings in the country’s capital. Trump is very aware of the political credit that comes with freeing detained Americans, and his White House pumped a news message showing support for the agreement of officials in both parties.

“Marc Fogel’s Homecoming Is long too late and I know that the whole of Pennsylvania, especially his family, welcomes him back with open arms, “said Senator John Fetterman, D-Pa., Tuesday at X, when he expressed gratitude to Trump and Witkoff.” I want to thank @potus and @stevewitkoff for their efforts to finally bring Marc home. “

At the same time, Trump and his helpers have tried to transform the return on a partial benefit. For years, Trump smooths heavy criticism of the bite of the offers he secured. They included a swap that released WNBA star Brittney laughs in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout and one in which the United States released $ 6 billion for Iran – and then blocked the money in the midst of political blowback – in exchange for five Americans.

On Wednesday, the White House slammed press secretary Karoline Leavitt Biden for not getting Fogel out of Russia and created a direct contrast between the two presidents.

“This is something that the Biden administration allegedly tried to do for 3½ years,” Leavitt said on his regular orientation with journalists. “I think you all should go back and ask some of these bites -administrative officials, what they even tried to do, and why were they not successful? Because for 3½ years Marc Fogel was sitting in a Russian prison and it took President Trump three Weeks to get him back on American soil.

Former Biden -Administration officials welcomed the news that Fogel had been released, but took major problems with the Trump team’s characterization of hostages in the last four years.

“Trump left Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan in Russia. We got them out,” said a bit administration National Security -Officer. “He left Citgo 6 in Venezuela. We got them out. He left Mark Frerichs in Afghanistan. We got him out. He left several Americans in Iran. We got them home.”

More broadly, Biden said the official’s official, “We dramatically brought more Americans home than he did – and there were fewer unjustly retained Americans when we left the office than when he left the office” for the first time.

First term Trump administration officials also defend their record.

Edward McMullen, a former US ambassador to Switzerland, who was involved when the United States performed a prisoner exchange with Iran in Trump’s first period, said not only Trump made recurring retained Americans a priority, but he is open to dialogue on a way others can resist.

“This is nothing new. When the president was in his first period, he made it a priority to try to get any prisoner held illegally and under hardness out of Iran, out of several countries where they were held, ”McMullen said. “This is what it takes: a conversation, a recognition that dialogue gives results, and this is where the president has the amazing success.”