President Donald Trump said Friday that “stupid people” had pressed him to sanction Russia while he was negotiating Stephen Hubbard’s release, speaking beside Hubbard in the Oval Office after Russia freed the Michigan man on Oct. 21.
Asked whether he was considering lifting sanctions on the Russian sovereign wealth fund, Trump replied: “Not lifting or not, not doing anything, but, you know, I was very happy. They wanted me while I was negotiating for you. People, stupid people wanted me to put sanctions on Russia. If I would have put sanctions on Russia, your sons would have said, ‘That wasn’t good.'”
Hubbard answered: “The Russians laugh at these sanctions.” Trump repeated the line to the room: “I think, you hear that? They laugh at the sanctions.” Hubbard added: “They laugh at sanctions. It brings disrespect on my country.” Trump then sketched a hypothetical call with Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for Hubbard’s release while announcing new sanctions, and Hubbard said Russians “would all laugh” and that he “would have been back” still imprisoned.
Russia released Hubbard on Oct. 21 as Trump envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in St. Petersburg, the BBC reported. Hubbard, 74, a former teacher from Michigan, had been sentenced in 2024 to almost seven years in a penal colony after Russian prosecutors accused him of serving in a Ukrainian defense unit when he was captured in 2022. Trump said the release followed a request he “made directly” to Putin, that there was “no ‘swap’ necessary,” and that Hubbard was “on his way back home,” according to the BBC.
The State Department said the release was “a welcome step that we hope leads to the release of all Americans unjustly held in Russia” and that “there are currently no Americans determined to be wrongfully detained in Russia,” according to the BBC account. The department had previously classified Hubbard as wrongfully detained. His son Joseph Coleman, a Greek Orthodox priest, said in a statement quoted by the BBC that he received his father’s freedom “not as a political victory, but as a gift of mercy.” In the Oval Office, another son, whom Trump addressed as Troy, said he had “given up most hope” before the release.
Hubbard said he spent four and a half years detained, was isolated from other foreigners, and only believed he was leaving when guards gave him new clothes and led him out. He said he “wouldn’t have lasted another year.” Trump offered Hubbard a ride on Air Force One to a Florida rally that evening and told him, “It’s a great honor to have you.”
Trump’s sanctions comments follow an Oct. 16 action. That day, he signed an executive order implementing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which he signed into law on Sept. 18, while using the act’s section 115 to waive its duties under sections 112 and 113 and the sanctions and restrictions in section 102(d). He certified to Congress that the waiver was in the national interest. The order states that it does not affect sanctions imposed under earlier Russia-related executive orders.
Senator John Cornyn responded to that waiver on Oct. 17 by posting, “Lindsey would be appalled,” with a link to reporting on the order, according to his post on X. Separately, the BBC reported that after Witkoff called Putin a “humanitarian” for freeing Hubbard, Representative Don Bacon called the praise “another embarrassment” and Cornyn said Putin “is a stone cold killer.”
Trump did not announce a new sovereign-wealth-fund decision Friday; he said he was “not lifting or not, not doing anything” on that question while arguing that sanctions would have blocked Hubbard’s release.
Trump cast Friday’s sanctions exchange as proof that pressure on Moscow would have stranded Hubbard, and Hubbard endorsed that view in the room. The administration has not released details of the negotiations that would allow that claim to be independently tested. The State Department welcomed the release and said no Americans remain classified as wrongfully detained in Russia, and Cornyn’s “Lindsey would be appalled” post addressed the Graham Act waiver, not Friday’s Oval Office remarks.