Trump says he’ll replace top US diplomat tasked with hostage release

President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will name a new U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, teeing up the firing of a diplomat who negotiated recent prisoner swaps with Russia and who Trump himself appointed to the position.

In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump wrote that he would appoint Adam Boehler, former chief executive officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, to the role. Boehler, he wrote, was a “lead negotiator” on the team that brokered the Abraham Accords, deals that saw a handful of Arab countries normalize relations with Israel.

“He has negotiated with some of the toughest people in the World, including the Taliban, but Adam knows that NO ONE is tougher than the United States of America, at least when President Trump is its Leader,” Trump wrote. “Adam will work tirelessly to bring our Great American Citizens HOME.“

The move will elevate an experienced negotiator into one of the most sensitive roles within the U.S. government — negotiating behind the scenes to release Americans wrongfully detained or held captive by foreign governments and nonstate actors around the world.

But Trump’s move to remove Roger Carstens, who has been praised by families of wrongfully detained Americans for his work securing the release of Americans in high-stakes prisoner swaps with adversaries such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela, is surprising. Trump appointed Carstens to the role in 2020, and President Joe Biden retained him in the position at the urging of families of hostages and commentators. Carstens was one of the few Trump appointees Biden kept in place.

Carstens, a former Green Beret who previously served as a deputy assistant secretary within the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, was part of the team that negotiated the 2024 multi-country prisoner swap with Russia that saw the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and marine Paul Whelan.

More controversially for some in conservative circles, Carstens brokered a prisoner exchange with Russia that saw the U.S. give up Kremlin ally and weapons trafficker Viktor Bout and Russia release WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was arrested on charges of marijuana possession in Moscow in 2021.

Those deals have been criticized by some as incentivizing adversaries to imprison Americans in order to extract concessions, including the release of high-value citizens of their own in American and allied custody. But Carstens has insisted that the price is worth it to secure the release of U.S. citizens.

“We value the lives of our citizens. We want them to come home. We want them to live in freedom, and that's very important to us. It really speaks to our values,” he said in August. “We have people out there right now that are waiting for us to find a way to get them released, and we have people out there right now that one day will be taken. And what I can promise you is you're going to get this government's best efforts.”