President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at giving the U.S. more tools to recover American hostages.
The signing, Trump’s 201st executive order, took place in the Oval Office and was captured on video.
According to a White House fact sheet, the order establishes a mechanism to designate countries that engage in hostage-taking as “States Sponsor of Wrongful Detention.” It also provides legal tools to address such practices.
During the signing, Trump asked Adam Boehler, Special Envoy for Hostage Response, for a briefing on recent hostage recoveries.
Boehler held up a graphic and said, “Mr. President, you’ve brought back 72 hostages since your term. If we compare that to President Biden, he’s gotten 20 taken. So, he’s 20 negative –“
“Twenty taken,” Trump interjected. “They don’t take our people so often.”
“And we paid nothing,” Trump added, “while they paid six billion” in a hostage swap.
Former President Joe Biden had claimed near the end of his term that he secured the release of more than 100 American hostages, later lowering that figure to 70. The National Review questioned the accuracy of Biden’s numbers.
Trump stressed the risk of paying for hostages, as Breitbart News reported.
“Once you pay money, then a lot of people start disappearing. They start grabbing reporters, too,” he said, addressing journalists covering the signing.
Trump added, “And to me they would. You would be, you’ll be well taken care of. I want to stress that. Otherwise, we have headlines. No, I’m not smiling about it.”
White House Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka explained the significance of the order.
“With this EO you are signing today, you are drawing a line in the sand that U.S. citizens will not be used as bargaining chips,” Gorka said. “And it provides your secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the same tool set to punish states who take our citizens wrongfully the same way that we can punish those who sponsor terrorists. This is very significant.”
Gorka criticized the Biden administration’s approach. He said families of American hostages were told not to speak publicly about missing loved ones. “To be quiet, not to create any pressure,” he said Biden aides instructed families.
By contrast, Gorka said, “this administration has met with these families on a weekly basis.”
Trump has already recovered 72 hostages during his current term, more than three times the number claimed under Biden, according to Boehler.
The executive order also reinforces Trump’s focus on accountability for foreign governments that engage in hostage-taking and provides legal pathways for the U.S. to penalize those states.
The signing highlights Trump’s ongoing commitment to national security and hostage recovery as central pillars of his administration.
