The presumptive GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump is weighing in on the detainment of American-born Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Gershkovich has been charged by the Russian government with espionage, charges that both the WSJ and the American government dispute. He has been held in a Russian prison since March 2023.
Trump claimed today on social media 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, will do that for me, but not for anyone else.” Trump added: “and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”
Former Naval War College political scientist and Russia expert Tom Nichols responded to Trump’s claim with derision, writing: “I guess, in the new GOP, ‘the dictators in the Kremlin love me’ is a selling point.”
I guess, in the new GOP, “the dictators in the Kremlin love me” is a selling point pic.twitter.com/9O59h4Lt2U
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 23, 2024
In 2019, Nichols wrote the USA Today op-ed essay ‘Vladimir Putin Has Compromising Information on Donald Trump,’ and argued “Trump’s behavior toward Russia has always been a security concern.”
Nichols claimed that the then-President Trump had gone to “extraordinary lengths to conceal his discussions with an enemy foreign leader not only from intelligence and foreign policy figures in his own administration, but even from the senior officials of his own Oval Office. It should go without saying that he has tried, in this area as in so many others, to wall himself off from congressional oversight.”
Note: The White House has confirmed there have been talks with Russia about a potential prisoner swap involving Gershkovich, and the detained journalist’s parents told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos that President Joe Biden had promised “to do whatever it takes” to release their son.