President Donald Trump leaves an American journalist to rot in Kuwait

Let’s be clear about what didn’t happen.

On March 3, 2026, Kuwaiti authorities snatched Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, an American citizen and award-winning journalist, for the unpardonable offense of resharing news articles about a war and posting footage of a U.S. fighter jet crashing over Kuwait.

The man holds a U.S. passport. He was visiting family. And for nearly four months, the most powerful nation on earth—led by a man who never stops telling you how powerful he is—did precisely nothing.

President Donald Trump, the self-styled master negotiator, the man who promised to bring hostages home before he even took office, the dealmaker who measures success in crowd sizes and signed executive orders—where exactly was he while a dual national American journalist languished in Kuwait Central Prison?

The answer, judging by the public record, is nowhere to be found.

Let’s review the timeline. Shihab-Eldin was arrested on March 3. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported he had not been seen publicly since March 2. UN experts later confirmed he was subjected to “grave violations” of fundamental rights, including enforced disappearance for four days. His crime? “Spreading false information.” “Harming national security.” “Misusing his mobile phone.” In other words, journalism.

And where was the American president? Where was the furious late-night Truth Social tirade? Where was the threat of tariffs, the “you have 24 hours” ultimatum, the theatrical phone call to the Emir of Kuwait that Trump would have certainly told us about if it had ever happened?

Crickets.

This is the same Donald Trump who, during the 2024 campaign, repeatedly lambasted the Biden administration for leaving Americans stranded abroad.

“They don’t respect us anymore,” he would say, jabbing a finger at the teleprompter. “When I’m back in office, you’ll see. They’ll be home in a week.”

One hundred days. That’s how long Shihab-Eldin was imprisoned. One hundred days of incommunicado detention, of interrogation facilities, of a man who once taught at Columbia Journalism School and won Amnesty Media Awards, being treated like a spy because he shared a news article.

Not only did Trump fail to secure his release, but the outcome was arguably worse than if the U.S. had done nothing at all. On April 29—nearly two months into the crisis—Kuwait stripped Shihab-Eldin of his citizenship.

He and his two sisters became part of a purge of more than 71,000 Kuwaitis, mostly those of Palestinian origin. An American journalist, stripped of citizenship, while the president who promised to protect Americans abroad apparently had other priorities.

To be fair, Trump was busy. March 2026 was a busy month. There was the ongoing Iran war to manage. There were rallies to hold. There were primary opponents to humiliate. There were cable news segments to rage-watch.

Somewhere in the chaotic machinery of the Trump White House, a file marked “Ahmed Shihab-Eldin — U.S. Citizen Detained” gathered dust in an inbox that no one was checking.

The contrast is almost comical if it weren’t so grotesque. Shihab-Eldin posted a video of a U.S. fighter jet crashing. Not state secrets. Not troop movements. Not classified intelligence. A crash. An accident.

Something local residents were already filming with their phones. For that, he was thrown in prison. And the American president, the man who wears a flag pin the size of a dinner plate, couldn’t be bothered to make a phone call.

Let’s talk about what Trump could have done. He could have picked up the phone. He could have threatened to suspend military aid. He could have made a public statement that put Kuwait’s human rights record on blast before a global audience. He could have done what every modern president has done when an American journalist is detained abroad—from Bill Clinton with AP’s Terry Anderson to Barack Obama with Washington Post reporters in Iran to Joe Biden with Evan Gershkovich in Russia.

Instead, Trump did what Trump always does when the situation requires actual diplomacy rather than performative bluster: absolutely nothing.

The UN experts were appalled. The Committee to Protect Journalists was scathing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called for immediate release. Amnesty International weighed in. The University of Bari, where Shihab-Eldin taught, joined the chorus. Where was the United States government? Silent. Where was Donald Trump? Tweeting about something else, presumably.

And here’s the kicker: even when Shihab-Eldin was finally released—not because of American pressure, but because a Kuwaiti judge happened to acquit him on one charge—the nightmare didn’t end. The prosecution appealed. His citizenship was stripped. He remains, as of this writing, a man without a country, facing the possibility of re-arrest, while the American president who could have prevented all of this moves on to the next outrage, the next distraction, the next crisis he will inevitably fail to manage.

This is what Trump’s foreign policy looks like when the cameras aren’t rolling. No deals. No artistry. No “we have the greatest military in the world” flex that actually accomplishes anything. Just an American citizen, abandoned, because freeing him would have required something Trump has never possessed: consistent attention, basic human empathy, and the willingness to do the boring, unglamorous work of diplomacy.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin is free now—sort of. He’s free in the way a man whose citizenship has been arbitrarily revoked, whose prosecution is still pending appeal, and whose only crime was doing his job, can be called free. But he almost certainly isn’t free because of anything Donald Trump did.

The dealmaker made no deal. The America First president put America last. And another journalist learned the hard way that a U.S. passport, under this administration, is just a piece of paper—useful for getting into the country, worthless for getting you out of trouble once you leave.