Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump threatened countries and terrorist organizations currently holding American hostages in his speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“To the entire world, we want our hostages back—and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.”
Trump did not specify exactly which hostage-takers he was referring to, but the convention has emphasized the plight of the five American citizens still being held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
The parents of Omer Neutra, an American citizen who is a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), addressed the convention on Wednesday night, with Trump in the audience, to chants of “Bring them home!”.
In his speech accepting the Republican nomination for president, Trump said that if he had still been in the Oval Office, Hamas would never have attacked Israel, because its sponsor, Iran, was “broke.”
Trump has also promised in the past to secure the freedom of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich, who is on trial in Russia for espionage in a prosecution that is widely seen as baseless retaliation for U.S. policy in Ukraine.
Other Americans are being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.