President Trump has his hands full. He’s dealing with the huge mess left by Joe Biden.
And now this White House hostage situation has taken a surprising new turn.
Trump Admin Secures Freedom For American Hostage, Freed Hostage Thanks President Trump
George Glezmann, an airline mechanic who endured two-and-a-half years as a hostage of the Taliban, returned home on Friday, showering praise on President Donald Trump for securing his freedom. Glezmann’s release, negotiated by the U.S. State Department with the Taliban in Qatar on Thursday, marked the end of a long ordeal that began in December 2022 when he was abducted while visiting Afghanistan. His family had spent years urging former President Joe Biden’s administration to act, only to face what they saw as indifference and inaction—a frustration that deepened as Biden’s tenure was increasingly criticized for mishandling hostage crises and foreign policy challenges.
“I feel born again, I’m in debt with the president. President Trump is amazing, you know, thank God he is in the White House where he got me out,” Glezmann said upon his return. “Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, Adam Boehler. I’m in debt with everybody that was involved in this situation because they got me home. A free American individual [is] free from the hands of these people that abducted [me] because of my U.S. passport and I’m just thankful. I’ve got no words to express my gratitude for my liberty, my freedom.” His words carried a palpable relief, a stark contrast to the despair his family felt under the previous administration.
Glezmann’s wife, Aleksandra, had publicly pleaded with Biden in July, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), begging him to intervene. “We are not wealthy or famous people,” she wrote in a letter. “I beseech you to intervene personally in George’s matter and do everything in your power to bring him home.” Despite her efforts to confirm whether Biden had even seen the letter, the White House never provided clarity, leaving her in limbo—a silence that fueled perceptions of Biden as detached and ineffective.
By September, the WSJ reported that Aleksandra still had no assurance her plea had reached the president’s desk. Desperate, the family even contemplated meeting the Taliban directly, convinced that Biden’s team had left them with no other option. Adding to their anguish, George suffered from a benign tumor, respiratory issues, and failing vision in his left eye—conditions that worsened in captivity.
Biden’s presidency was often viewed through a lens of failure when it came to American hostages. Critics pointed to his administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, which paved the way for the Taliban’s takeover and left the nation vulnerable. The Abbey Gate bombings near Kabul Airport, which k*lled 13 American soldiers during that retreat, became a symbol of what many saw as Biden’s incompetence. Families like the Glezmanns felt abandoned, their pleas lost in a bureaucracy that seemed more focused on damage control than decisive action. This perception only grew as other hostage situations lingered unresolved under his watch.
In contrast, Trump’s administration moved swiftly. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking Thursday, emphasized the ongoing mission to free detained Americans. “George’s release is a positive and constructive step,” Rubio said.
“It is also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan. President Trump will continue his tireless work to free ALL Americans unjustly detained around the world.” The results spoke for themselves: alongside Glezmann, two other Americans, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, were freed on the night of Trump’s inauguration on January 20. The administration also secured the release of Marc Fogel, detained in Russia since 2021 for possessing medical marijuana at an airport—a case that had languished under Biden.
For Glezmann, the gratitude was personal. His ordeal, sparked by his U.S. passport, ended not through the efforts of the administration his family had begged for help, but through Trump’s intervention. As he stood on free soil again, his story added to a growing narrative: where Biden faltered, Trump delivered.
Joe Biden’s Hostage Deals Left Black Eye On American Strength
In December 2022, President Joe Biden authorized a high-profile prisoner swap between the United States and Russia, exchanging notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for American basketball star Brittney Griner. Griner, a WNBA champion and Olympic gold medalist, had been detained in Russia since February 2022 on drug charges after authorities found vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport.
She was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony, a punishment many viewed as fair considering she did, in fact, break Russian law. Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” was serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to k*ll Americans and supporting terrorism through his global arms trafficking.
Joe Biden faced significant negative press following the December 2022 prisoner swap that exchanged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner, primarily due to the exclusion of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine detained in Russia since 2018 on espionage charges widely considered baseless by the U.S. government. Critics across political and media spheres voiced several key grievances.
One major point of contention was the decision to free Bout, dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” a figure notorious for his extensive arms trafficking that fueled conflicts worldwide. Many saw this as a lopsided trade, arguing that releasing a high-profile criminal convicted of conspiring to k*ll Americans for a basketball player detained on minor drug charges (possession of cannabis oil) undermined U.S. national security. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for instance, called it “unconscionable” and a “gift to Vladimir Putin,” warning it could embolden hostile nations to detain Americans as bargaining chips. This sentiment was echoed within the Justice Department, where officials reportedly viewed the swap as a mistake due to the stark disparity in the individuals’ offenses, with one insider telling The Washington Post that trading “a notorious international arms dealer for a basketball player is madness.”
The exclusion of Whelan intensified the backlash. Critics, including Republican lawmakers and advocates for detained Americans, accused Biden of prioritizing Griner—whose celebrity status and identity as a Black, openly g*y woman drew significant public attention—over Whelan, a lesser-known figure languishing in a Russian prison. Alabama Representative Mike Rogers stated that Whelan had been “abandoned” by the administration, while Jonathan Franks of the Bring Our Families Home Campaign said Whelan had been “let down and left behind three times by two presidents.” Whelan himself expressed dismay in a CNN interview from prison, noting he was “greatly disappointed” more hadn’t been done for him, especially as his four-year detention anniversary approached. His family, though supportive of Griner’s release, described his continued imprisonment as a “catastrophe,” amplifying the narrative of neglect.
The timing and geopolitical context added fuel to the criticism. The swap occurred amid heightened U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine, leading some to argue that Biden’s decision handed Putin a propaganda victory. Russian officials framed Bout’s return as a diplomatic coup, with human rights ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova calling it “a true Christmas present,” suggesting Putin had outmaneuvered Biden. Critics also pointed to Biden’s broader foreign policy struggles, like the Afghanistan withdrawal, to paint the swap as another misstep, accusing him of projecting weakness.
Even within his administration, the deal stirred unease. Reports from The Washington Post and CNN revealed Justice Department resistance, with officials favoring a “like-for-like” exchange policy that the Griner-Bout swap defied. The State Department’s push for the deal, backed by Biden, overrode these objections, but the internal discord leaked to the press, feeding perceptions of a haphazard process. Publicly, the administration defended the swap as a tough but necessary choice—Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it “one or none”—yet this failed to quell accusations of political expediency, especially given Griner’s high-profile advocacy campaign versus Whelan’s quieter plight.
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