Donald Trump is desperate right now. So desperate, in fact, that he’s grabbing at anything he thinks he can boast about. And of course, like almost anything he ever says, his most recent brag is fact-free. But that’s Trump for you. He’ll say whatever and his supporters will swallow it whole.
So what was he patting himself on the back for this time? Trump claimed that if he’s elected president for a second time, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is currently incarcerated in a Russian prison on spying charges that sound a bit, well, fishy, will be “released immediately,” even before he is sworn in for his second term, Raw Story reports. “He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY,” Trump crowed. “Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”
But according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who spoke to The Guardian, that’s a solid Nyet.Â
“There aren’t any contacts with Donald Trump. Regarding [US-Russian] contacts on the matter of incarcerated and convicted individuals, we can say that these contacts must be carried out in total secrecy. This is the only way they can be effective,” Peskov said.
So this definitely throws ice water on Trump’s claim. But this shows just how desperate Trump is to get people’s approval. As I said earlier, those who already plan to vote for him will believe this unquestioningly.
The fact is, the Biden administration is continuing to work on freeing Gershkovich and has been doing so since he was arrested in March 2023. So far, no trial date has been set but there have reportedly been discussions about possible prisoner swaps to Russia although the Kremlin has rejected each proposal.
The U.S. brokered one big success with the release of basketball star Brittney Griner, who was being held in a Russian prison, but it is extremely difficult to secure the release of anyone that Russia has accused of spying. One such example is Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine who’s been held in captivity on a questionable spying conviction for the past five years. Moscow has firmly refused any attempts to arrange a prisoner swap.
Trump has received well-deserved criticism over his alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose dictatorial government provided plenty of interference in the 2016 election to benefit Trump. And we all know what fun happened after that — one really big investigation in which he was never charged with a crime concerning this. It was a huge hornswoggle that led to four years of hell for the rest of us.
Let’s hope this isn’t an instance of “wash, rinse, repeat.”
