Turkey Pastor Freed, Many Credit Trump For Big Win!

God bless our wonderful President Trump!

While Obama was busy paying Iran $1.7B for the release of some questionable characters, Trump has made it clear he will pay NO MONEY and offer NO CONCESSIONS to any country illegally holding American citizens!

Especially pastors!

With the same tough stance he’s taken against North Korea, Mexico, Canada and China, Trump gets results.

And he just got a MAJOR result, finally freeing the imprisoned North Carolina Pastor, Andrew Brunson!

My favorite comment came from a Facebook commentor who said of the story:

“A president who will fight for you and bring you home! “

That’s exactly right!

God Bless Trump!

Grab Your President Donald J. Trump and Supreme Court Justice Judge Brett Kavanaugh Collector Coin, While Supplies last!

Here are more details, from Vox:

After years of imprisonment that sparked an international furor, Turkey has released North Carolina Pastor Andrew Brunson into the custody of US diplomatic personnel. He’ll soon fly to a US air base in Germany before heading back to the United States.

Brunson was held by Turkish authorities for two years, charged with unproven crimes that he was involved in espionage. But after months of trying, the Trump administration struck a dealwith Turkish officials to bring the pastor home. 

Upon hearing the news on Friday, Trump tweeted “My thoughts and prayers are with Pastor Brunson, and we hope to have him safely back home soon!”

Thus ends a saga that became deeply personal for the Brunson family and top US administration officials. Brunson is “a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being,” President Donald Trump tweeted on July 28. “He is suffering greatly.”

Trump escalated tensions with Turkey, a NATO ally, over Brunson. He placed sanctions on two high-ranking Turkish officials and tariffs on Ankara’s steel and aluminum sectors because the country wouldn’t release the pastor. 

Those moves quickly plunged Turkey’s currency and may send the country into a recessionnext year. It’s possible the US will lift some or all of those penalties in exchange for Brunson’s return.

Why Turkey kept Brunson for so long

Brunson lived in Turkey for more than 20 years. Turkish authorities detained him on October 7, 2016, claiming that he was a spy and had connections to a terrorist group. The US expected him to be released on July 18, but then Turkish officials decided to put him under house arrest. 

The charges he faced meant he could have spent the rest of his life in prison. But during a hearing on October 12 in Turkey, Brunson’s fourth overall, three witnesses took back their negative statements about the pastor. That cleared the way for his release.

Turkey likely never had the intention of keeping Brunson in its custody forever. “The case against Brunson, like tens of thousands of other political prosecutions in Turkey, was farcical from the beginning, comprised of guilt-by-association, fabricated evidence, and secret witness testimony,” Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey expert at St. Lawrence University, told me. “His release is as much a political decision as his initial prosecution was.”