Teacher Trump Rescued from Russia said in a clip posted to the social media platform X. “President Trump is a hero.”
President Donald Trump has delivered yet another victory, this time complete with a heartwarming conclusion.
Nonetheless, even those of us who try very hard to practice Christian virtues might find it difficult to forgive both the Trump-hating establishment media and the anti-American administration of former President Joe Biden.
At a news conference inside the White House on Tuesday evening, Pittsburgh-area teacher Marc Fogel, newly arrived in the United States after the Trump administration freed him from a Russian prison, undoubtedly rankled the press corps when he referred to the president as a “hero.”
“I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all,” Fogel said in a clip posted to the social media platform X. “President Trump is a hero.”
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fogel traveled to Russia in August 2021. The 63-year-old history teacher had already spent nine years teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow and prepared to embark upon his tenth and final such year.
Russian authorities, however, arrested Fogel on charges of bringing medical marijuana into the country. In June 2022, he began serving a 14-year prison sentence, per The New York Times.
On Tuesday, however, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s friend and special envoy to the Middle East, brought Fogel home following a secret negotiation.
In other words, Trump remedied an injustice.
“I had a Steelers hat on when I got off the plane,” a smiling Fogel told Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania outside the White House only moments after the president greeted the returning American.
That moment reminded us of exactly what kind of person the tyrannical Russian government imprisoned — and whom Biden’s administration ignored. In short, Trump did not rescue a celebrity. He rescued a teacher and a football fan — someone like the rest of us.
Then, when Fogel got inside the White House, he expressed his gratitude by paraphrasing baseball legend Lou Gehrig.
“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” the history teacher said.
Before Trump took the stage on that fateful Saturday, he met with Marc’s mother, 95-year-old Malphine Fogel.
“He said, ‘If I get in, I’ll get him out,’” Malphine said, speaking to reporters from the Butler home in which Marc grew up, per the Post-Gazette. “I said, you’ve got to remember his name.”
Trump, too, remembered that encounter.
“When I saw [Marc Fogel’s] mother at a rally, she said, ‘If you win, will you get my son out?’ I promised her—she’s 95 years old—and I said, ‘We’ll get him out,’ and we got him out pretty quickly,” Trump wrote late Tuesday on X. A series of photos showing Marc’s return home accompanied the post.
At the risk of darkening a heartwarming story, let us turn now to the maddening part of it.
Reporters asked Trump what the U.S. gave up in order to secure the teacher’s release. “Not much,” the president replied, per the Post-Gazette.
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Thus, apparently the Biden administration could have rescued Fogel from a Russian prison, but it did not. Instead, Biden prioritized rescuing WNBA player Brittney Griner, a celebrity and a black lesbian.
Now, make no mistake, Griner did not belong in a Russian prison any more than Fogel did. Every patriotic American who cherishes justice welcomed her home.
The problem, however, is that the Biden administration consistently left the impression that DEI-related characteristics, such as skin color and sexuality, took precedence over nearly everything else.
It should sicken us, therefore, that we even have to suspect an administration of allowing an American citizen to linger in a foreign prison for such reasons.
It should also remind us that we need to punish those who made war on ordinary Americans for the last four years.
In the meantime, we may relish imagining the looks on reporters’ faces when Fogel called Trump a hero.
And we may thank God that we finally have a president who acts in Americans’ interests.
