As President Joe Biden’s term enters its homestretch, it stands to reason that the Democratic incumbent might be thinking about his legacy and his accomplishments. If so, it’s quite likely that Biden realizes that Thursday’s developments, and his role in making them happen, won’t soon be forgotten. NBC News reported:
Four U.S. residents wrongly imprisoned in Russia — including journalist Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan — were released Thursday, part of a major multinational prisoner exchange the likes of which has not been seen since the Cold War. The massive deal, cut among seven nations, involves 24 people, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens held in Russia, and eight Russians imprisoned in the U.S., Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland.
Biden described the diplomatic efforts that led to the release of the four U.S. detainees a “feat of diplomacy and friendship,” which was more than fair given the circumstances. Indeed, given the available details, the story reads like a dramatic film involving international intrigue, secret talks, complex diplomacy, and reunited families.
But as the credits rolled, and audiences cheered, Donald Trump sat on his hands.
It would’ve been easy for the Republican nominee to celebrate the return of Americans who’d been unjustly detained by Russia, but the former president instead published a biting missive to his social media platform, posing a series of barbed questions that made his annoyance clear.
After asking whether the Biden administration was giving Russia “cash” — the White House had already answered that question, explaining that Russia would not get money from the agreement — Trump complained that officials from his own country “never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, the GOP candidate went on to write, “Our ‘negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us! I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING. … “They’re calling the trade ‘complex’ — That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is!”
For now, let’s put aside the fact that when Trump claimed he gave up “nothing” to get Americans back, he was brazenly lying. Instead, let’s focus on why the former president’s first instinct was to whine about good news for his own country.
Trump can’t claim credit: Sure, some Republican partisans, including his running mate, peddled silly claims about the former president playing some indirect role in the developments, but Trump seemed to realize that he had nothing to do with this. And if Trump can’t plausibly claim credit for good news, then the news, practically by definition, can’t be good.
Trump said this wouldn’t happen: The Republican spent months publicly arguing that he, and he alone, would have the wherewithal to bring Gershkovich home. Oops. Trump almost certainly couldn’t have pulled this off: The lynchpin of the deal was diplomatic work with Germany. When Trump was in office, he tapped a notorious online pest to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Germany, where he managed to routinely infuriate our allies in Berlin. In fact, Trumps ambassador was so reviled that some German officials spoke publicly about the possibility of asking him to leave the country. The agreement was the result of alliances that Biden strengthened and Trump intends to weaken: As Biden explained on Thursday, he and his team “rebuilt NATO. We rebuilt the circumstances to allow this to happen. That’s why it happened.” These are the same alliances, of course, that Trump has been hostile toward for years. No wonder the GOP nominee isn’t happy.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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