President Trump on Thursday evening touted the release of three Americans prisoners from North Korea who arrived home this week, noting that the U.S. did not pay for their release.
.@POTUS: "President Obama paid $1.8 billion for hostages." pic.twitter.com/udQbGBAGp2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 10, 2018
“[North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un did a great service to himself and to his country by doing this. But those hostages came out, with respect, we didn’t pay for them,” Trump said during a rally in Elkhart, Ind.
“What he did was the right thing, but they came out for nothing and the others came out for $1.8 billion in cash,” Trump added.
Trump appeared to be referring to a January 2016 deal in which the Obama administration agreed to pay Iran $1.7 billion to settle a case related to the sale of military equipment before the Iranian revolution.
