Some fascinating comparisons here between the Trump Administration and the Obama Administration. Recall: Obama paid Iran $400 million to release 4 Americans. Trump says: we don’t negotiate with terrorists.
The dramatic release of Pastor Andrew Brunson saw the American going from detention in Turkey to sitting in the Oval Office in less than in 24 hours (see a moving video below of the meeting).
Brunson, an American citizen who was a pastor in Turkey for 23 years, was arrested in October 2016 in a sweep of Turkish judges, police officers, soldiers, university professors, civil servants and more in Turkey’s Islamist President Erdogan’s post-coup crackdown against perceived dissidents.
President Donald Trump, who said he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke about Brunson’s case at “at least once a day,” said of the release:
“We don’t pay ranson – at least not any longer – otherwise bad things will happen, lots of bad things will happen,” ostensibly referring to the $400 million cash payment the Obama Administration released to Iran when the Islamic Republic released four Americans they were holding prisoner.
The payment to Iran was part of a larger $1.7 billion payment, which a number of sources noted was same amount as the increase in the Iranian defense budget for the 2017 fiscal year.