President Trump welcomed Stephen Hubbard into the Oval Office on Friday, nine days after the retired teacher walked out of a Russian prison where he had spent four and a half years. Standing with his family in front of the Declaration of Independence, Hubbard told the president plainly: "I wouldn't have lasted another year."
Trump called Hubbard "a very special man" who "suffered greatly," and told him: "It's an honor to have you and your family." Hubbard said he had heard promises of release many times before and believed it only at the very end: "Only when they started giving me new clothes and leading me to the exit of the prison... Then I believed, finally believed."
Hubbard, 74, is a retired English teacher from Michigan and an Air Force and National Guard veteran who had lived in Izyum, in eastern Ukraine, since 2014. He was detained in April 2022 as Russian forces took the city, accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine — a charge he denied — and sentenced to nearly seven years. The State Department had designated him wrongfully detained; he was the last American in Russia carrying that designation.
He was released on October 21 in St. Petersburg, where special envoy Steve Witkoff was meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin. Witkoff collected him and stressed that the release was "not part of an exchange," thanking Putin for granting Trump's request. Trump wrote that Hubbard was freed at his request, "made directly to President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation," and that the United States "was not required to give anything in return." Hubbard's plane landed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on Wednesday night.
Trump used the meeting to make his case on sanctions. While the release was being negotiated, he exempted Russia from new sanctions Congress had passed — and he said doing what his critics demanded would have kept Hubbard in prison: "We were in the midst of negotiating. And a lot of stupid people said, and people that don't know how life works, they said, 'Why aren't you putting Russia sanctions and all this' in the midst of a negotiation to try to get a long-term hostage back from Russia. If I would have done that, you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back." He acted out the alternative: "I'm speaking to President Putin: 'I'd like to get Steven Hubbard back, Mr. President. And by the way, we're putting sanctions on you right now.' Can you imagine?" Hubbard backed him, saying Russians "laugh at these sanctions." Some Republicans in Congress had criticized the waiver; the sanctions have not been reimposed since the release.
For American families, Hubbard's homecoming is the proof of the approach the White House is selling: a wrongfully detained American brought home by a direct presidential request, with no swap and nothing given in return — and a president arguing that holding off new sanctions mid-negotiation is what made it possible. As many as ten other Americans remain in Russian custody. Asked about them at the meeting, Trump said: "We're going to be working on them."
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