President Donald Trump has secured the release of 17 Americans who were held as hostages in foreign countries during his first year in office.

The latest was Joshua Holt, who was imprisoned in Venezuela in 2016 after traveling there to meet a woman he had met online. Holt came back to the United States in good health on May 26, spotlighting President Trump’s excellent negotiating skills on the world stage.

“So we’ve had 17 prisoners released during the Trump administration,” Trump told reporters on May 26 as he welcomed Holt in the White House. “We’ve had 17 released, and we’re very proud of that record. Very proud. And we have others coming.”

President Trump said his team is currently negotiating other hostage releases, so we should expect more good news. “We’re in the midst of some very big negotiations to get others out,” he said.

Joshua Holt’s release from Venezuela comes two weeks after the Trump administration successfully negotiated the release of three Korean-Americans who had been imprisoned in North Korea.

As BizPac Review previously reported, President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met the three freed Korean-Americans as they stepped onto U.S. soil at 3 a.m.

Thank God, Trump & America: Watch history in the making as POTUS welcomes grateful prisoners home https://t.co/YYU25RM0KU pic.twitter.com/B1omzYVIt0 — Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) May 10, 2018

President Trump also secured the release of American student Otto Warmbier in June 2017. Unfortunately, Warmbier died just days after he was returned to the United States in failing health after apparently having been tortured.

Otto was just 22 years old. He spent 18 months in a North Korean prison for allegedly trying to take a poster from a Pyongyang hotel. When Otto returned to the United States, he was unconscious and brain-damaged.

Otto’s parents thanked President Trump profusely for his tireless efforts to bring their son home and slammed Barack Obama for barely lifting a finger to intervene on their son’s behalf.

Otto’s father said the Obama administration even told him and his wife to not publicly discuss their son’s brutal imprisonment so as to not “offend” North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

“We’ve been forced to be quiet,” Fred Warmbier said. “Do I think the past administration could have done more? I think the results speak for themselves.”

Instead of commending Trump for his efforts, the leftist American media crowed that Otto deserved to be tortured in North Korea because he was a “privileged white male.”

Leftist media blamed Otto Warmbier’s white privilege for his arrest. What about his murder? https://t.co/IHRnyETXUg pic.twitter.com/vvSPP8kmDl — Jack Furnari (@JackBPR) June 21, 2017

Since Otto’s tragic death, President Trump has made securing the release of American hostages a top priority.

“The United States condemns hostage takers and nations that detain our citizens without just cause or due process,” he said. “My Administration is greatly increasing efforts to bring home all Americans unjustly detained abroad. We will leave no lawful tool, partnership or recovery option off the table.”

President Trump’s No-American-Left-Behind approach is a stark contrast to Barack Obama, whom none of our enemies feared as they fear Trump. When Obama secured the release of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in 2015, he exchanged five top Taliban leaders in the swap.

In January 2016, Iran released four Iranian-Americans from jail after the Obama administration delivered a ransom of $400 million in cash (that’s taxpayer money).

In contrast, President Trump didn’t give anything in return for the release of any American hostages released under his watch. Instead of commending Trump for his work, liberals have instead mocked and belittled his efforts.

In November 2017, President Trump personally intervened on behalf of three UCLA basketball players who were arrested for shoplifting in China.

Shoplifting is a serious offense in China, which has a long history of human-rights abuses, so the UCLA students could easily have rotted in jail for years had President Trump not intervened.

LaVar Ball, the father of one of the students who was released thanks to Trump, responded by saying he felt no need to thank President Trump. “Did he go visit them in jail?” Ball asked. “If you went to visit them in jail, then I would say ‘thank you.’”

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