An American defense contractor who was held hostage in Kuwait for 903 days has thanked President Donald Trump for his efforts in securing his release.
Tony Holden offered his thanks in a video after he was freed on Wednesday, Fox News reported on Friday.
47 hostages in 100 days thanks to the President.
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) May 1, 2025
This is today, Dulles Airport.
Tony Holden is a contractor from Memphis that was imprisoned for four years and hasn’t seen his youngest daughter since she was a baby.
He’s home. Because of President @realDonaldTrump.
47 for 47. pic.twitter.com/5TzUq1DtGm
“President Trump, I want to thank you for what you’ve done for me and my family,” Holden said as his loved ones stood with their arms around him:
I wanted you to know, everyone on your team, everyone that have supported this effort, that you know that we greatly appreciate it, okay? I wanted you to be able to meditate on how you affected, personally, lives and the difference you’ve made. I’m a 60-year-old grandfather and father. I can’t put words in how excited. We give all grace and honor to God. But he used instruments and there have been a lot of people behind the scenes who have done a great work. So I wanted to you to be able to hear that directly from me. And again, God bless you and your family.
In November 2022, Holdent was arrested at U.S. Army base Camp Arifjan while working for an America-based company called Vectrus.
The men who arrested him looked for drugs at the apartment on the base where he lived, but Holden is a religious man who reportedly does not use drugs or drink alcohol.
The men then searched a second apartment that was off-base where his family lived, but again came up empty-handed. When it was dark outside, they then reportedly took Holden, his wife, and their three-year-old daughter into the desert, per the Fox article:
The family said Holden was later “coerced into signing a written confession in Arabic to protect his family.” They then administered a drug test on Holden, which came back negative, but the defense contractor was still charged with drug possession, drug trafficking, and attempting to flee the country. His family said Holden was not given legal representation.
The judge in Holden’s trial eventually realized that the case was false, as the officers presented a fabricated conversation between themselves and Holden in English, even though they didn’t speak the language. Despite this, Holden was sentenced to five years in prison, where he remained even after an internal police investigation found that his confession had been coerced, according to his family.
In March, Kuwait freed a group of six Americans that included veterans and military contractors who had been imprisoned, Breitbart News reported, noting officials with the United States government had not designated the group as being wrongfully detained.
Jonathan Franks is a private consultant on such cases and explained in a statement, “These Americans were left in prison for years due to a misguided policy that had, before President Trump took office, effectively abandoned Americans abroad.”
Kuwait has released nearly two dozen American detainees in the past two months, according to the Associated Press. The outlet noted the Middle Eastern country is considered to be one of America’s non-NATO allies.
The report said, “Kuwait also has detained many American military contractors on drug charges, in some cases for years. Their families have alleged that their loved ones faced abuse while imprisoned in a country that bans alcohol and has strict laws regarding drugs.”
“Others have criticized Kuwaiti police for bringing trumped-up charges and manufacturing evidence used against them — allegations never acknowledged by the autocratic nation ruled by a hereditary emir,” it stated.
