Imprisoned American aid worker freed by Trump endorses Biden

The aid worker said she felt pressured by Mr Trump after her release

An American aid worker who was imprisoned for three years in Egypt before being released after Donald Trump personally intervened has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Aya Hijazi tweeted her support for Mr Trump's challenger on Monday.

“Trump leaned in & said, ‘You know it’s I who released you, don’t you? I succeeded & Obama failed’ in the most vulnerable moment of my life, 48 hrs after releasing me from prison,” Ms Hijazi wrote. “It was never about me like it was never about us. It’s about his ego. We deserve better #VoteBiden.”

Ms Hijazi appeared in a press appearance next to Mr Trump shortly after she was released in 2017. She said she felt "torn" during the meeting, and pressured to support Mr Trump.

She claimed the president "demands loyalty as a means of maintaining control".

Mr Trump touted his rescue of Ms Hijazi in a video meant to highlight his successes in freeing American prisoners throughout the world. The video included clips of Otto Warmbier, who was taken by North Korea, and Kayla Mueller, who was kidnapped by ISIS.

In recent months, Mr Trump has accelerated efforts to locate Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria.

Ms Hijazi said the government should help people because it's morally correct, not to try to wrest control over those it represents.

“But the government should not help citizens to make them loyal; it should do help b/c it’s the right thing to do #VoteBidenHarrisToSaveAmerica,” Ms Hijazi wrote.

Ms Hijazi's support of Mr Biden earned the ire of conservatives, some of whom have said Mr Trump should have left her to her captors.

Raheem Kassam, who runs a conservative YouTube channel and website, said "next time he should leave you there".

Freeing imprisoned Americans overseas is not unique to Mr Trump; it is a common function of the position.

Mr Trump said he used his connections with Egypt's autocratic leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to free Ms Hijazi, but other Americans imprisoned by the leader remained in the country until pressure from the press and lawmakers forced Mike Pence to act to release another. A third American, Mustafa Kassem, was never released and died in an Egyptian prison due to complications stemming from his diabetes.  

Mr Trump has called Mr al-Sissi "my favourite dictator".