There were major moves on the foreign policy front over the weekend as Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a trip to Panama, President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes against ISIS leaders in Somalia, and the threat of tariffs loomed over Mexico, Canada, and China.
Amid those headline-grabbers was the return of six American prisoners from Venezuela after a secret trip to the country by Trump’s envoy for special missions, Ric Grenell. Additionally, the country also agreed to repatriate Venezuelans who entered the U.S. illegally – including Tren de Aragua gang members.
On Monday’s show, Grenell joined Megyn to discuss his surprise trip and share new details about the diplomatic talks that led to the prisoner release.
The Trip
From the United Nations to an ambassadorship in Germany to acting director of national intelligence, Grenell has specialized in foreign affairs for most of his life. But he called the outcome of Friday’s trip the “highlight” of his career.
“Not only did we get the hostages back without paying a penny and without trading any hostages – which is really important – but we also got the Venezuelan government to bring their planes to the United States to take illegal immigrants in our country from Venezuela back to Venezuela,” he explained. “They are sending the planes, and they are paying for it. I think this is the new standard.”
Grenell said he left Washington, D.C., “super early” Friday morning on an Air Force plane bound for Caracas. Once on the ground, he made his way to the presidential palace to begin negotiations with Nicolás Maduro and his team.
While Grenell called the negotiations “top secret,” he said Trump made it clear that the purpose of his trip was two-fold. “First of all, to get the illegal immigrants in our country back to Venezuela and they needed to accept all of these individuals, including the awful group” he explained. “And we went for everything by saying, ‘You need to provide the planes, you need to pay for it, you need to come get them.'”
Part two, involved the Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. “And then the president wanted us to focus on the hostages. There are 12 Americans, at least… that are, in essence, hostages. They are held on really lame charges,” Grenell said. “We had a conversation about the individuals… Some of these individuals, it is going to take some time. But… we were able to successfully argue that these six were absolutely innocent, they are not political in nature, and they deserve to come home.”
The Release
The identities of the six men released have not been officially released, but Grenell posted a photo on X with them on the plane back to the U.S. late Friday. Four of the men were handed over clean shaven and in the blue uniforms seen in the photo. The other two were not, he said, because they were swapped in at the last minute.
The four men told Grenell that there were initially two others brought into a room with them and told to get cleaned up. Those two apparently refused because they had been tricked into the routine several times before. The four who agreed, were freed. The other two were not.
“What ended up happening over time that we only learned later was that the Venezuelan government found two other Americans to replace them. They didn’t have time to get everything together, so they are in their plain clothes and… not in blue,” he explained. “It is heartbreaking to think that there were two individuals that could have been released, but they thought that, once again, this was just a head fake from the Venezuelan government. They refused to play the game – not knowing, not realizing that this was for real.”
Grenell said it will be a priority of the Trump administration to get those two men and the others still imprisoned released. “It is our job to convince [the Venezuelan government], to show them the facts… This is what the Biden team didn’t do,” he said. “The Biden team didn’t even send anyone to the prisons… They didn’t even get a wellness check from the Biden administration. They had no idea what was going on.”
Diplomacy in Action
The U.S. does not officially recognize Maduro’s current government because it is believed he lost the most recent election to a challenger, which made Grenell’s trip to meet with the embattled leader all the more controversial. It also provided leverage.
“President Maduro said to me, ‘We’re going to give you these, and now these are the things we want,'” he recalled. “And I said, ‘No, we are giving you a huge gift, and the huge gift is that I am here sitting with you, you’ve got all sorts of cameras around, and you’re going to use this for propaganda purposes’… The gift was a conversation, a hope of a different future, and an American diplomat sitting there.”
Ultimately, Grenell believes the visit demonstrates the power of diplomacy. “What I have learned is you’ve got to show up… and talk,” he said. “Talking is a tactic. It is not weakness. It is, in the face of looking at someone else, pushing for the American agenda and not backing down… It’s called diplomacy.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Grenell by tuning in to episode 998 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.