Trump bragged that he didn’t have to pay ransom to get US hostages that should have never been taken back from N. Korea, but the policy of the US government is to never pay ransom for hostages.
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Trump said, “I think they want to do what’s I really think they want to do and only recently that this has been taking place. I think I understand why it’s been taking place. They want to do what’s right. I really believe Kim Jong-un wants to do what’s right. Hopefully, things will work out. Thank you all very much. We have a wonderful dialogue. We have a wonderful — there’s been a very good working relationship. It started with the hostages coming back home. The hostages came home. We didn’t have to pay. We wouldn’t have paid. They are very happy and they never thought it was going to happen.”
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It is US government policy not to pay ransom for hostages. If Trump had paid ransom, he would have done so in violation of decades of US policy, so Trump didn’t accomplish anything great by following what was already the stated policy of the country.
Trump wants credit for not doing something that he wasn’t supposed to do in the first place.
In Trump’s mind getting the hostages back without paying was a “good deal.”
The reality is that paying should have never been an option in the first place, so a president who understands nothing wants credit for not doing something horrible that he didn’t even know was a violation of national policy.
The Executive Branch of the United States government has fallen down a black hole of total ignorance.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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