Mother of ISIS hostage praises Trump for making American captor return a ‘priority’

The mother of a former ISIS hostage killed in 2014 praised President Trump Friday for his efforts to return U.S. hostages home.

Diane Foley, mother of journalist James Foley, told Law and Crime that she thought the Trump administration was doing more than the previous administration to prioritize the return of U.S. citizens held by foreign captors.

{mosads}“I have to commend the Trump administration,” Foley told the network. “The Trump administration has made the return of Americans more of a priority, without a doubt.”

A foundation named in her son’s honor released a report this week commending the Trump administration and the president himself for prioritizing the return of hostages, noting that leadership at the highest levels was often the deciding factor in whether a hostage is returned.

“Often, it is leadership from the President himself and the Secretary of State that is necessary to bring these Americans home to their families,” the report said, according to Law and Crime. “That leadership must continue.”

Foley, a war correspondent covering the Syrian civil war, was abducted in 2012 and held captive by ISIS forces for months until his eventual execution in 2014.

Foley was previously been held and released by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, the ousted ruler of Libya, a year earlier.

Foley told Law and Crime that she did not feel as if the Obama administration did enough to secure her son’s release.

“I do feel it could have turned out differently if our government had negotiated with them,” she reportedly said.

“I feel that we did not engage as a government because of the civil war in Syria and therefore we missed out on a lot of intelligence about ISIS that we would have known had we engaged with the captors,” she added.