Trump Blasts Brittney Griner Exchange in Latest 'Rigged' Election Tirade

Donald Trump has branded Brittney Griner an "American hating basketball player," and repeated his claim that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged," in his latest social media outburst on Friday.

Griner arrived in the U.S. that day after being freed in a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer nicknamed the "merchant of death," who had been in American custody at the United States Penitentiary, near Marion, Illinois.

The WNBA star was arrested in February in Moscow after cannabis oil was found in her bag, which she claimed was an "honest mistake."

Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison and sent to IK-2, an infamous Russian penal colony near Yavas, about 300 miles southeast of Moscow.

On his Truth Social website, Trump wrote: "The Trump Administration got 58 hostages released from various hostile countries without paying any money, or giving up anything. That is something, both in numbers and lack of remuneration, that has never been done before in any other administration.

"The America hating basketball player for the "Merchant of Death," especially when the former Marine is not even included, is a one-sided disaster, and a BIG WIN FOR RUSSIA. If I made that deal the Dems would chant, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA!" the former president added.

Griner's outspoken support for the Black Lives Matter movement, including her 2020 suggestion that the national anthem shouldn't be played before WNBA games, made her a controversial figure among some conservatives.

There was also anger that Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine who has been held in Russia since 2018, was not included in the deal.

Speaking to CBC News, Bill Richardson, a former American ambassador to the U.N. who was involved in negotiating Griner's release, said the administration hoped to get Whelan freed as well, but this was blocked "at the last minute."

After criticizing the Griner deal, Trump came under fire over an agreement that his administration made in 2020 with the Taliban, which led to the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners.

Lawyer Tristan Snell received more than 18,000 retweets after posting: "In late 2018, Trump released Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the top leaders of the Taliban, along with 5000 other Taliban fighters, in exchange for... *checks notes*... nobody."

On Friday, Trump also repeated his discredited claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him, posting: "The biggest thing to come out of the Twitter Targeting Hoax is that the Presidential Election was RIGGED - And that's as big as it can get!!!"

This coincided with journalist Matt Taibbi releasing the third installment of the "Twitter files," compiled with support from new owner Elon Musk, which reveal Trump was being monitored by the site for potential election disinformation ahead of the November 2020 polls.

Trump would go on to be suspended from Twitter in January 2021, after his supporters stormed Congress on January 6 in a bid to stop the 2020 presidential election result being certified.

Musk reactivated Trump's Twitter account in November after posting a poll on the site, but the former president has said he doesn't plan to return.

Newsweek has contacted Donald Trump for comment.