Trump stays silent on detained U.S. reporter

Former president again fails to criticize Putin

Former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has made no public statements on Russia’s detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been held for one year without formal charges or a trial.

Asked directly to clarify Trump’s position on Friday, his campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Trump has consistently gone out of his way to avoid criticizing Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Trump himself routinely demonizes reporters with terms such as “the enemy” and “criminals.”

His silence stands out among bipartisan condemnation of the detention and calls for Gershkovich’s release. The Journal’s editorial board, whose page Trump is known to read, noted the exception on Tuesday, pointedly asking, “Why the silence, sir?” The Journal commemorated the anniversary of Gershkovich’s arrest Friday by leaving a blank space on the newspaper’s front page.

Even Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who has been among the harshest critics of Ukraine and mostly sympathetic to Putin, concluded his interview with the Russian dictator in February by asking for Gershkovich’s release. Putin’s response was noncommittal.

President Biden’s campaign slammed Trump for accommodating Putin.

“It’s shameful but unsurprising from Donald Trump, who has made it quite clear repeatedly he would side with Putin over the American people,” Biden-Harris spokesman Ammar Moussa said. “This is the same guy who told the world he’d let Putin do whatever he wants to our NATO allies — even if it meant more war and suffering.”

Biden on Friday vowed to keep working to secure Gershkovich’s release. “We’ve tried everything we can so far,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on his way to Camp David. “We are not going to give up.”