President Donald Trump is taking a victory lap after the release of American citizen Stephen Hubbard from Russian custody, while sharply faulting Joe Biden for allowing the retired teacher to languish behind bars for years.
According to The New York Post, President Trump said he personally intervened on Hubbards behalf during a recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, underscoring what he portrays as a stark contrast in leadership between his administration and Bidens. In a Truth Social post, he declared, Stephen Hubbard, taken four years ago by Russia during the Biden Administration, was just released from prison, at the request of President Donald J. Trump, made directly to President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation last week.
Trump further emphasized that Moscow did not demand concessions from Washington in exchange for Hubbards freedom, casting the outcome as a sign of personal clout rather than bureaucratic deal-making. He wrote that Russia had not sought any prisoner swap for Hubbard, out of respect for President Trump.
The 45th president also used the moment to excoriate Biden, accusing him of failing in one of the most basic duties of the office: protecting American citizens abroad. Biden should have done the Hubbard release long ago! What a difference a President makes! he wrote in a follow-up post, reinforcing a familiar conservative critique of Bidens foreign policy as weak and indecisive.
Hubbard, a US Air Force and National Guard veteran from Big Rapids, Michigan, had been living in eastern Ukraine with a Ukrainian partner when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. He was seized by Russian forces in April 2022, then convicted on mercenary charges in October 2024 and sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison, a case that now raises fresh questions about why the Biden administration failed to secure his release sooner while Trump claims to have done so with a single call.
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