Donald Trump maintained his relationship with Vladimir Putin after leaving the White House in 2021, according to Bob Woodward's new book. The veteran reporter claimed in War, set to release next week, that the former president had “as many as seven” secret phone calls with the Russian president since his exit from the office.
Trump's secret relationship with Putin revealed in bombshell book
In early 2024, the GOP nominee ordered an aide out of his Mar-a-Lago office to have a conversation with Putin. The same aide noted that the duo have spoken half a dozen times since Trump left the office, according to Woodward's book, obtained by CNN. The book also reveals the Republican candidate's personal gifts to the Russian leader.
During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, while still in office, Trump secretly sent “Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.” Woodward claimed that at the time, the Russian president told the ex-prez, “Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me.” To this, Trump replied, “I don't care. fine.”
“No, no,” Putin argued, adding, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.” Woodward also wrote that Joe Biden’s Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines “carefully hedged” when asked about if any phone calls between Trump and Putin took place after the former left the office.
{{/usCountry}}“No, no,” Putin argued, adding, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.” Woodward also wrote that Joe Biden’s Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines “carefully hedged” when asked about if any phone calls between Trump and Putin took place after the former left the office.
{{/usCountry}}“I would not purport to be aware of all contacts with Putin. I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done,” Haines said, according to Woodward. Though the book cited numerous sources, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, said that “none of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true.”
Cheung went on to call the claims “the work of a truly demented and deranged man … clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made previously.” Meanwhile, Dmitri Peskov, a spokesperson for Putin, also shut down the claims, saying, “This is not true. It’s a typical bogus story in the context of the pre-election political campaign,” per New York Times.