Former US president Donald Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Vladimir Putin in 2020 when he was in the White House and spoke multiple times to the Russian president after leaving office, an explosive new book by US journalist Bob Woodward reveals. The Kremlin on Wednesday denied reports in the upcoming book, "War", that Putin spoke to Trump after he left office or had a private phone conversation two years after Russia invaded Ukraine. Trump also denied the allegations.
Former US president Donald Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Russia's Vladimir Putin since leaving office and secretly sent the Russian president Covid-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic, Bob Woodward reported in his new book, “War".
The famed reporter's opus also chronicles some of President Joe Biden's own acknowledged missteps and his struggle to prevent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, including exasperation with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over futile efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire.
In excerpts of "War" published Tuesday by The Washington Post, where Woodward is an associate editor, he says Trump retains a personal relationship with Putin even as he campaigns for another term and the Russian president conducts a war against US ally Ukraine.
With Covid-19 raging in 2020, Trump sent a batch of coveted tests to his counterpart in Moscow. Putin accepted the supplies but sought to avoid political fallout for Trump, urging him not to reveal the dispatch of medical equipment, the book says.
According to Woodward, Putin told Trump: "I don't want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me."
Woodward also cites an unnamed Trump aide who indicated the Republican leader may have spoken to Putin up to seven times since leaving the White House in 2021 – despite the US effort to help Ukraine resist Russian invasion and the severe deterioration of relations with Moscow.
The Post, reporting Woodward's account, said that at one point in early 2024, Trump ordered an aide out of his office in his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida because he wanted to hold a private call with ex-KGB officer Putin.
At a campaign event Tuesday for Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, Biden said the way Trump handled the pandemic was a "disgrace".
"Over a million people died. But guess what... he called his good friend, Putin, not a joke, and made sure he had the tests," Biden said.
"War" hits bookshelves October 15, just three weeks before a critical US election in which Trump is locked in a tight race against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump and Kremlin deny phone call reports
Trump denied the reporting in "War" in an interview with ABC News. “He’s a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles,” Trump said of Woodward.
Trump had previously spoken to Woodward for the journalist's 2021 book, “Rage”. Trump later sued over it, claiming Woodward never had permission to publicly release recordings of their interviews for the book. The publisher and Woodward denied his allegations.
Woodward is a leading US investigative reporter who teamed up in 1972 with fellow-Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein to break the Watergate scandal, which eventually undid the Nixon presidency.
In his new book, Woodward concluded that Trump was worse than Richard Nixon. “Trump was the most reckless and impulsive president in American history and is demonstrating the very same character as a presidential candidate in 2024,” The Washington Post quoted the book as saying.
The Kremlin on Wednesday also denied reports that Putin spoke to Trump as many as seven times after the latter left office, the RBC daily reported.
When asked by reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "No, that's not true."
Russia blasts Harris's comments on Trump and Putin
Russia on Wednesday also criticised Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris's comments about Putin, saying they revealed "anger and frustration" in Washington.
In an interview broadcast Monday, Harris said that, if elected president, she would not meet with Putin for peace talks if Ukraine was not also represented.
She also reiterated her criticism of Trump's policies on Ukraine, describing them as "surrender" to Moscow.
"Donald Trump, if he were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now," she told CBS's "60 Minutes" programme.
The Russian embassy to Washington in a post on social media criticised Harris's "recent unacceptable statements", without clarifying which ones.
It said Harris's comments showed "frustration and impotence of the ruling circles in Washington".
The 'epitome of evil'
While Democrat Harris appears in "War", she is seen in a supporting role to Biden "and hardly determining foreign policy herself", the Post reported.
Harris, asked about the book Tuesday by popular radio host Howard Stern, said Trump had been "played" and manipulated during a health calamity that saw Americans "dying by the hundreds every day".
"Everybody was scrambling to get kits (and Trump) is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator for his personal use," Harris said.
Woodward has chronicled American presidencies for 50 years, and this is his fourth book since Trump's upset victory in 2016.
Trump has repeatedly praised Putin. During the 2016 campaign, the Republican memorably urged Moscow to "find" thousands of Hillary Clinton's emails.
US intelligence agencies later concluded Russia had meddled in that election in Trump's favor, although a special counsel's investigation found no conspiracy between the Trump camp and Moscow.
According to CNN, which obtained a pre-release book copy, Woodward quotes the outwardly mild-mannered Biden swearing as he discusses his personal and political challenges.
Biden called Putin "the epitome of evil", blasted Netanyahu as a "liar" and said he "should never have picked" Merrick Garland as US attorney general.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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