Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

US President Donald Trump blamed the Obama Administration for not preventing the death of American college student Otto Warmbier, and said that the US could have saved the young man if it had brought him home sooner, the New York Post reported.

Trump said that Warmbier, who passed away Monday after having been brought back to the US in a coma last week, might still be alive if the US had “brought him home sooner.”

“It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto. It should never, ever be allowed to happen. And frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the results would have been a lot different,” Trump said during a ​meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at the White House.

Representatives of the Obama Administration defended the former president's efforts to secure Warmbier's release.

“During the course of the Obama Administration, we had no higher priority than securing the release of Americans detained overseas,” Obama spokesman Ned Price said. He noted that the US had secured the release of ten US citizens from North Korea under the Obama Administration.

"It is painful that Mr. Warmbier was not among them, but our efforts on his behalf never ceased, even in the waning days of the administration,” Price said.

Trump wrote on his Twitter account that he had enlisted the help of China to secure Warmbier's release.

“While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!” Trump wrote.

Fred Warmbier, the father of Otto, praised the Trump Administration's more aggressive approach to bringing his son home, as opposed to the more low-key approach of the Obama Administration in his first public statement after the family was reunited last Thursday.

"When Otto was first taken we were advised by the past administration to take a low profile while they worked to obtain his release. We did so without resolve." he said.

"Earlier this year Cindi and I decided the time for strategic patience was over, and we made a few media appearances and traveled to Washington to meet with Ambassador Joe Yun at the State Department. It is my understanding that Ambassador Yun and his team, at the direction of the president, aggressively pursued resolution of the situation. They have our thanks for bringing Otto home."

Otto Warmbier was arrested for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from a North Korean hotel and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was held by North Korea for 17 months, and according to North Korean authorities was in a coma for a year before his release.