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Trump Greets and Welcomes Marc Fogel Back to the United States, Feb. 12, 2025

February 12, 2025 · The White House · 0:15:37

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump greeted and welcomed Marc Fogel at the White House, carried on the White House channel (uploaded Feb. 12, 2025). Fogel, per the official White House description, is an American freed after being wrongfully detained in Russia since 2021. Arriving in the cold, Fogel said he felt like the luckiest man on Earth and that he was not a hero at all - the President, the men from the diplomatic service, and the senators and representatives who passed legislation in his honor were the heroes, as he stated it.

Fogel thanked the President and his administration for bringing him home and said he would spend the rest of his life paying it forward. He spoke of his 95-year-old mother and of the letters and journals Russian authorities had taken from him that day, including a picture of the President and his mother, as he recounted it.

Why it matters

The welcome is the human end of the Fogel release the administration announced the same week: the freed American’s own account, delivered at the White House beside the President who negotiated the exchange.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Greets and Welcomes Marc Fogel Back to The United States” (YouTube, 2025-02-12) - official description and broadcast transcript as aired.