Trump calls US-Russia prisoner swap a ‘win for Putin,’ says detainments ‘wouldn’t have happened with us’

Former President Trump reacted to the historic prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia, calling the deal a “win for Putin” after the Biden administration facilitated the largest swap in the post-Soviet era. 

Trump discussed why he believes the deal appears to be “complex” and how that could signal the negotiation terms were not in America’s best interest on “Mornings with Maria.”

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“As usual, it was a win for Putin or any other country that deals with us, but we got somebody back, so I’m never going to be challenging that,” he told Maria Bartiromo after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich returned to the U.S.

“It wouldn’t have happened with us. We would have gotten him back. We wouldn’t have had to pay anything. We wouldn’t have had to let some of the great killers of the world go, because that’s what’s happened, as you know. And the deal is very complex because it just came out. So nobody understands the deal yet, and they make it complex so you can’t understand how bad the deal is for us.”

“[Gershkovich] shouldn’t have been taken in the first place, and it would have never happened with us if I was president,” he continued. 

Bartiromo asked Trump if he was insinuating the U.S. gave more to Russia than just prisoners. 

“I have no idea what they did. I just know they announced it’s a very complex deal,” he responded. “That’s usually a way of saying we made a bad deal, and we made it complex and nobody understands it,” Trump said. “So we have to find out, was money involved? Did we pay billions like last time we paid $6 billion in addition to everything else?”

The historic exchange also included former Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, along with legal permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza. In exchange, Vladamir Putin insisted his hit man, Vadim Krasikov, be released back to Russia.

Krasikov used the cover name Vadim Sokolov and was convicted by a German court for the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen commander near Berlin’s parliamentary building. He was in German custody.

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“All told, Russia has released 16 prisoners. Eight Russians who were being held in the West will be sent home as well. The 16 prisoners from Russia that Russia has released include four Americans, five Germans, seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country,” President Biden said Thursday. 

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted during a press briefing that no money or sanctions were used to incentivize the swap. 

When asked if the historic prisoner exchange would incentivize hostile countries to arrest more Americans, Sullivan said, “It’s a question that we grapple with every time that we look at the hard decisions involved in one of these exchanges.” 

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND – AUGUST 1: U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris greet Evan Gershkovich , a prisoner freed by Russia, as he arrives on August 1, 2024 at Joint Base Andrews, Mar (Getty Images / Getty Images)

Regardless, Trump argued that using money as a bargaining chip during negotiations can set a very “bad precedent” and possibly lead to more Americans being detained abroad.

“When you start paying money … when you start doing that, and all of a sudden you have a lot of hostages taken prisoner, so to speak, and you’ll have a lot of a lot of things happening,” Trump said. 

“It’s very bad. It’s a very bad precedent.”

“I’m worried about the people we have in office are grossly incompetent,” Trump said. “I’m worried about World War III before I get there.”

Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy and Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report. 

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