Opinion | The incredible cruelty at the center of Trump's boasts about Evan Gershkovich

Let’s cut to the chase here: Is former President Donald Trump trying to sabotage Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s chances of being released before the November election?

On Thursday, Trump posted on social media that because of his extra-special relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he — and only he — can free the innocent young American who has been languishing in a foreign jail for over 400 days. Trump claims that Putin will free the reporter as a unique personal favor to him — but will not do it for anyone else, which presumably includes President Joe Biden and the rest of the United States government.

And this will apparently only happen if Trump is returned to the White House, according to the post:

Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, 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, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!

The statement is extraordinary on several levels.

Trump has inserted himself into a delicate legal and diplomatic issue in the least constructive manner possible. If there are, indeed, ongoing negotiations for freeing Gershkovich, Trump’s post seemed designed to derail them, or at least to put them on hold until he is re-elected. (In yet another unusual twist, the Russian government seemed to rebuke Trump’s attempted intervention: “Any contact regarding those imprisoned or convicted,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, “must be carried out in complete silence and in a discreet manner.”)

But it’s not even clear how this would work. What quid pro quo would be required? Would Putin do this huge favor for him out of personal affection? Or in return for Trump abandoning Ukraine, or perhaps withdrawing key American support for NATO?

What is clear is that Trump continues to think that his relationship with Putin, such as it is, is a selling point for his presidential candidacy. And he obviously values this relationship highly. Back in 2018, Trump famously sided with Putin over his own intelligence agencies when asked about Russian election interference. Over the years he has defended Putin from charges that he is a killer. (“There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Trump told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly when asked about Putin’s reported penchant for murdering political opponents.) After the death of dissident Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison, Trump pointedly refused to condemn Putin or hold him in any way responsible.

Also in February, Trump seemed to invite Putin to attack NATO members who were “delinquent” on their NATO funding promises. These comments sent tremors throughout European capitals, given his well-documented record of antipathy toward the vital military alliance. John Bolton, a former national security adviser under Trump, believes Trump will pull the United States out of the alliance if he wins another term.

Such a move, as difficult as it would be to accomplish, would of course hand Putin a stunning geopolitical victory.

But again, this would not be the first time Trump has seemed more interested in personal vendettas than ensuring the continued safety and security of United States citizens. In March 2022, shortly after Putin began his brutal invasion of Ukraine, Trump asked the Russian strongman for help in digging up dirt on Hunter Biden. Trump focused on allegations that Biden had received millions of dollars from the former wife of the late former mayor of Moscow. The allegations remain unsubstantiated, and Hunter Biden has denied them — but Trump remained fixated on them.

Trump explicitly framed his request to Putin as an act of retaliation not just against Biden, but against the United States itself.

“As long as Putin is not exactly a fan of our country,” he said in a 2022 interview, “I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it.”

There’s no indication that Putin responded to Trump’s request.

Now Trump is back with claims about his clout with the Russian president. And yet, as The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols notes: “Gershkovich’s family and others might wonder why Trump would wait until after the election to help an American citizen: Trump could call Putin right now and ask for Gershkovich’s release. When asked by Time magazine why he hadn’t done so, Trump said that he’d been too busy, but added: ‘And I probably have said very good things about him,’ meaning Gershkovich.”

Too busy?

So what’s the real reason Trump hasn’t made that call? The most likely answer is, of course, depressingly obvious: Like his “friend” Vladimir, Trump views the plight of the young hostage as just another opportunity to score political points.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com