--- title: Taliban Group's Hostages Didn't Know About Trump Presidency description: A Canadian man rescued after five years in captivity said he didn't believe his kidnappers when they told him Donald Trump was president canonical: https://time.com/4984525/freed-hostage-donald-trump-presidency/ copyright: © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. terms: https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/ license_contact: syndication@time.com author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-16T20:03:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:57:12.476Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hostage Held Captive by Taliban-Linked Group Didn't Believe Donald Trump Was President og:description: “It didn’t enter my mind that he was being serious" og:url: https://time.com/4984525/freed-hostage-donald-trump-presidency/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7ba62332750a9b2/6988e22f656a3f4281bd21cf/joshua-boyle-haqqani-hostage.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: Joshua Boyle, Caitlan Coleman, Patrick Boyle, Linda Boyle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hostage Held Captive by Taliban-Linked Group Didn't Believe Donald Trump Was President twitter:description: “It didn’t enter my mind that he was being serious" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7ba62332750a9b2/6988e22f656a3f4281bd21cf/joshua-boyle-haqqani-hostage.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hostage Held Captive by Taliban-Linked Group Didn't Believe Donald Trump Was President > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b134701d-6212-4056-881c-d0c204693762&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Freed Hostage Says Haqqani Kidnappers Killed His Infant Daughter [Watch (HLS stream): Freed Hostage Says Haqqani Kidnappers Killed His Infant Daughter](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/51kqvGqh.m3u8) (2:25)  _Published 2017-10-14. Former hostage Joshua Boyle says the Haqqani network in Afghanistan killed his infant daughter and raped his American wife during the five years they were held in captivity._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 16, 2017 8:03 PM UTC Former hostage Joshua Boyle says the Haqqani network in Afghanistan killed his infant daughter and raped his American wife during the five years they were held in captivity.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 16, 2017 8:03 PM UTC A [Canadian man](http://time.com/4982694/haqqani-network-afghanistan-kidnappers-killed-child/) who was rescued in Pakistan last week after [five years in captivity](http://time.com/4979397/caitlan-coleman-joshua-boyle-haqqani-taliban/) said he [initially didn’t believe](https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/10/14/after-a-lifetime-in-captivity-the-children-of-joshua-boyle-and-caitlan-coleman-begin-to-heal.html) his kidnappers when they told him Donald Trump was president of the United States. “It didn’t enter my mind that he was being serious,” Joshua Boyle said in a recent [interview with the Toronto _Star_](https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/10/14/after-a-lifetime-in-captivity-the-children-of-joshua-boyle-and-caitlan-coleman-begin-to-heal.html). Boyle and his American wife, [Caitlan Coleman](http://time.com/4979397/caitlan-coleman-joshua-boyle-haqqani-taliban/), were held hostage by a Taliban-linked group for five years with their three young children, who were born in captivity. The couple was abducted in 2012 by the Haqqani network while they were traveling in Afghanistan. Boyle told the _Star_ that he didn’t know [Justin Trudeau](http://time.com/4952822/justin-trudeau-canada-indigenous-peoples/) was the Canadian prime minister until he was released either, and he only learned Trump was the U.S. president when he was forced to make a “proof-of-life” video. For now, Boyle said he and his family are trying to adjust to normal life back in Canada. “Obviously it will be of incredible importance to my family that we are able to build a secure sanctuary for our three surviving children to call a home, to focus on edification and to try to regain some portion of the childhood that they have lost,” [he said in a statement after arriving in Toronto on Friday](https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/10/14/full-statement-from-freed-hostage-joshua-boyle-upon-his-return-to-canada.html). ## Transcript No mistakes. Obviously it will be of incredible importance to my family that were able to build a secured sanctuary for our free surviving children, to call a home, to focus on identification and to try to regain some portion of the childhood that they have lost. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I was in Afghanistan. Helping the most neglected minority group in the world, those ordinary villagers who live deep inside Taliban controlled Afghanistan, where no NGO, no aid worker and no government has ever successfully been able to bring the necessary help. The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani network's kidnapping of a pilgrim, and his heavily pregnant wife, engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban controlled regions of Afghanistan, was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorising the murder of my infant daughter. Martyr Boyle. As retaliation for my repeated refusal to accept an offer that the criminal miscreants of the Haqqani network had made to me and the stupidity and evil of the subsequent rape of my wife Not as a lone action by one guard, but assisted by the captain of the guard and supervised by the Commandant Abuhaja of the Haqqani Network. God willing, this litany of stupidity will be the epitaph of the Haqqani Network. Sic semper tyrannis. At this point, my family is asking the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Who has already carried out an investigation last year and conceded that these crimes were perpetrated by the [ UNKNOWN ] network in 2014 against my family, to provide my family the justice that we are owed. I certainly do not intend to allow a brutal and sacrilegious gang of criminal miscreants To dictate the future direction of my family nor to weaken my family's commitment to do the right thing no matter the cost. In the final analysis it is the intentions of our actions not their consequences on which we shall all eventually be judged. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] What's it like to be back? How do you feel to be back? 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