Donald Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with 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 revelations were made in the famed Watergate reporter's latest book, which also details President Joe Biden's frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 's assortment of burner phones. The Associated Press obtained an early copy of the book, which is due out next week.
Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, denied the accounts in the book. “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Cheung said in a statement.
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.
Here is more from the book:
Woodward reports that Trump asked an aide to leave his office at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, so that the former president could have a private call with Putin in early 2024. The aide, whom Woodward doesn’t name, said there have been multiple calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left office, perhaps as many as seven, according to the book.
Trump's relationship with Putin has been scrutinized since his 2016 campaign for president, when he memorably called on Russia to find and make public missing emails deleted by Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said.
U.S. intelligence agencies later determined that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump, though an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found no conspiracy between the Trump team and Russia. In 2018, Trump publicly questioned that finding following an in-person meeting with Putin in Helsinki.
In recent years, Trump has criticized U.S. support for Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion. He has said Ukraine should have made concessions to Putin before Russia invaded in 2022. He also previously touted his good relationship with Putin and called the Russian leader “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine.
Woodward reports that Trump sent Putin COVID-19 test machines for his personal use as the virus began spreading in 2020.
Putin told Trump not to tell anyone because people would be mad at Trump over it, but Trump said he didn’t care if anyone knew, according to the book. Trump ended up agreeing not to tell anyone.
The book doesn’t specify when the machines were sent but describes it as being when the virus spread rapidly through Russia. It was previously reported by The Associated Press and other agencies that Trump’s administration in May 2020 sent ventilators and other equipment to several countries, including Russia.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview Tuesday with radio host Howard Stern, accused Trump of giving the machines to a “murderous dictator” at a time when “everyone was scrambling" to get tests.
“This person who wants to be president again, who secretly is helping out an an adversary while the American people are dying by the hundreds every day," said Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
The book also details Biden’s complicated relationship with Netanyahu as well as private moments when the president has been fed up with him over the Israel-Hamas war.
Biden’s “frustrations and distrust” of Netanyahu “erupted” this past spring, Woodward writes. The president privately unleashed a profanity-laden tirade, calling him a “son of a bitch” and a “bad f——— guy," according to the book. Biden said he felt, in Woodward’s accounting, that Netanyahu “had been lying to him regularly.” With Netanyahu “continuing to say he was going to kill every last member of Hamas.” Woodward wrote, “Biden had told him that was impossible, threatening both privately and publicly to withhold offensive U.S. weapons shipment.”
Biden and Netanyahu have long been acquainted, although their relationship has not been known to be close or overly friendly. Last week, Biden said he didn’t know whether the Israeli leader was holding up a Mideast peace deal in order to influence the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Asked about the book's reporting, White House spokesperson Emilie Simons told reporters Tuesday that “The commitment that we have to the state of Israel is ironclad.”
Simons, when pressed on the details, said she wouldn't comment on every anecdote that may come out in reporting. She added of Biden and Netanyahu: “They have a long-term relationship. They have a very honest and direct relationship, and I don’t have a comment on those specific anecdotes.”
The book details Biden’s criticism late last year of President Barack Obama’s handling of Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, when Biden was serving as the Democrat’s vice president.
“They f----- up in 2014,” Biden said to a close friend in December, blaming the lack of action for Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, Woodward wrote. “Barack never took Putin seriously.”
One of Trump’s longest-term allies, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, blamed Trump’s ongoing false claims that the 2020 election was rigged to a cult of personality in which the former president’s ensconcement at Mar-a-Lago and circle of aides and advisers “constantly feed this narrative,” according to the book.
The weekend after Russia invaded Ukraine, Graham was with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, which the senator characterized as “a little bit like going to North Korea.” Graham added that “everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in.”
On politics, Woodward wrote that Graham’s counsel was part of what persuaded Trump to run again for the presidency.
In March, during one of his many visits to the Middle East since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Graham told Woodward that he had been meeting with the Saudi crown prince when Graham suggested they call Trump. From “a bag containing about 50 burner phones,” Prince Mohammed “pulled out one labeled ‘TRUMP 45.’” On another trip, Woodward wrote, the Saudi leader retrieved another burner phone, "this time labeled JAKE SULLIVAN ” when the men called Biden’s national security adviser.
Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York, Eric Tucker in Washington and Aamer Madhani aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
64 Comments
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Underworld
This was when these tests were difficult to get for anyone. This would have been a scandal at the time.
Putin is savvy enough to see how this looks. No wonder Trump is weak in front of Putin and won't condemn Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Sad.
stormcrow
Trump making secret calls to Putin? Who's surprised?! It would have been more surprising if Trump hadn't been calling him since he lost. Trump loves Putin.
Trump is Putin's lapdog.
dagon
Thanks for your opinion former UFC fighter Steven Cheung, probably a sufferer of CTE along with some other prominent Trump supporters.
plasticmonkey
The Cheung doth protest too much, methinks.
bass4funk
Bob Woodward, ROFL!
plasticmonkey
Steven Cheung, ROFL!
TaiwanIsNotChina
Yes, nothing says patriotism like providing America's enemies special gifts under the radar.
Cards fan
Is anyone surprised that the wannabe dictator who openly sides with the Russian government over his own intelligence agencies is close with Putin? I'm certainly not.
What do you think they talk about? Trump's Moscow hotel deal? Maybe a plan to build some Mickey mouse roach motels in Dombass? The weather? Trump and his fan base are just so pathetic.
plasticmonkey
That's easily verifiable.
bass4funk
Who?
Who could forget?
https://x.com/natashasrdoc/status/1838265926472384922?s=46&t=YGWP_lcRZjddiWlx4QxURQ
TaiwanIsNotChina
You mean the guy who revealed embarrassment after embarrassment from no self control Trump? Even Biden's criticism of Obama is no big deal because it is also Trump's failure.
TaiwanIsNotChina
No clear promise made and every single one of Dump's conversations with Putin were off the record.
Underworld
bass4funk
Watergate, anyone? One of the most influential journalists in American politics.
Chuck
Actually reading the article would help.
wallace
Unlike Donald Trump Bob Woodward served his country 1965-70. Winner of numerous awards.
bass4funk
So you’re saying all this is no big deal then, it’s just this Woodward’s criticism?
I see, so let’s excuse Barry and Medvedev. Lol
bass4funk
There are many ways to serve your country, being President is one, being a police officer or Fire fighter etc.
wallace
bass4funk
Unlike Donald Trump Bob Woodward served his country 1965-70. Winner of numerous awards.
Serving your country means military service. Back in 1965, Trump opted out because of his bone spares.
Hercolobus
How did he confirm that? Somebody eavesdropping on Trump?
Cards fan
Yes, let's.
It's also important to note that Obama was president, and Trump isn't president now.
He also lied about plans to build a tower in Moscow.
Trump will sell his own country down the river for a roach motel in Moscow.
bass4funk
Trump served his country as President, an honor that most people could never attain
Semantics, educator, military, the nation, law enforcement, it’s all the same.
But he served the nation as leader of the most powerful nation on the planet, he made up for that.
Underworld
Hercolobus
Yes. One of his aides. It's in the article.
bass4funk
Still wouldn’t know.
John
being even moderately politically literate would also be helpful. The guy is quoted every day as the campaign spokesman.
John
Sadly, Trump never did anything more than cosplay any of these things.
ClippetyClop
It's also clear that along with the Covid testing machines, Trump also sent Putin reams of stolen classified secrets from his Mar a Largo stash.
Putin is playing Traitor Trump and his dimwitted followers like a fiddle. He's somehow conned them into thinking he's an ally of America. He's not, he loathes it.
John
Woodward lays more foundation, as if any more were needed, that Trump is a Russian asset influenced by soothing plays to his tissue-thin ego from the KGB and its successor the FSB.
Chuck
Ah, a conditional phrase. Thanks for confirming what we already know.
PTownsend
Donal Trump ROFL, MAGA LMAO.
bass4funk
Yeah, I really don’t think you have room to talk on this point. ROFL!
Not as President.
Cards fan
Yes you would.
Anyone who read the article would know Cheung is Trump's communications director:
wallace
bass4funk
Unlike Donald Trump Bob Woodward served his country 1965-70. Winner of numerous awards.
Like Obama and Biden. Nice to see your support for those.
Serving your country means military service.
Bob Fosse
So what do you call leaving your country and choosing to live in another one? Is it like dodging the draft?
bass4funk
No, I wouldn’t.
I see
John
Turns out that “Russia, Russia, Russia” are 3 answers to the following questions:
Who recruited Trump as an asset in 1987 on his first trip to Moscow?
Who has compromat on Trump?
Who’s Trump’s daddy?
bass4funk
They served, I just don’t support them
That as well.
Some dude
I just read that CNN article. Pretty fascinating.
I mean it goes without saying that Trump's yes-men and fangirls won't care (or this will actually improve their image of him even more), but still a really good read. Biden comes off very different to his generally avuncular public facade too, lots of cursing. Which makes me think even more of him.
bass4funk
According to Mueller, a 2 year investigation 500 witnesses and 500 subpoenas and 150 agents found nothing. The Russian collusion delusion was a dud
Cards fan
That is not what Mueller found. Nice try.
John
What Muller actually found was no less than 6 chargeable counts of obstruction of justice that Don the con was saved from by the guidance of the ÖLÇ.
In addition it found that Russia interfered with the election in support of Trump and that Trump knew about it and passively supported it.
The latter was reinforced by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, chaired by Marco Rubio, saying the same thing.
So, Trump is a Russian stooge and every non-cultist knows it.
Bob Fosse
‘Patriotic’ expats are as interesting as that one guy who want stop talking about his ex wife.
wallace
Another best seller. Will sell more copies than Trump's Bible.
bass4funk
That is what he found, and that’s why they couldn’t get him. Shucks!!!
And? So libs outside the U.S. get to decide who’s a patriot and who’s not???? lol!
bass4funk
So in other words, nothing.
Cards fan
So in other words, I read nothing, so I know nothing.
Blacklabel
Odd that Bob Woodward cannot identify this mysterious “Trump aide” he supposedly heard all this supposedly super secret stuff from.
does this person happen to have a name?
Desert Tortoise
Jupiter's and the Republican Party's fondness for the Russian dictator and their MAGA philosophy are true to Republican form. In the late 1930s the America First faction of the very same Republican party shared a deep fondness for Adolf Hitler, calling him a "stabilizing force" in Europe even as he invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland and annexed Austria, while the Republicans of the time excoriated Winston Churchill as a dangerous war monger. Back then non other than Charles Lindburg and a loudmouthed Catholic priest with a radio show, "Father" Joe Coughlin were their vocal spokesflunkies. This was the same party that a decade earlier pushed through immigration restrictions on southern Europeans, mainly Italians and Greeks, based on bogus scientific studies "proving" their supposed intellectual and moral inferiority.
What did Mark Twain say, history doesn't repeat itself but it certainly does rhyme. Too many people don't know anything beyond their immediate living memory. Crack a history book folks. The situation in Europe and the US today is very much like 1938 and if the Repubes repeat their past we are guaranteed WWIII. Guarandamteed.
fallaffel
You're in denial that Trump could do any wrong, so your reaction is not a surprise to anyone. Actually this is pretty mild stuff he says about Trump. You would probably send Putin a care package too if you could manage it.
Some dude
read Bob’s book. He tells you all about biden’s vulgarity and how his private and completely demeaning comments about others don’t match his good ole Joe public persona.
At least he does it in private rather than in public. Y'know, like mocking a disabled journalist, calling other journalists "fake news" to their faces (in front of their peers), slandering Haitian-Americans by accusing them, during a presidential debate, without any proof, of eating cats and dogs...
I liked reading about Biden's cussing. Makes him easy to relate too. I mean if you had to spend any time at all dealing with Trump, your language would probably be equally spicy. (That's the generic "you", and is not addressed to the posters here who would be on their knees in front of him the moment they met him).
Some dude
Edit: easy to relate TO, before anyone picks up on a typo to try and deflect from what I wrote.
fallaffel
Actually I think most people would agree with Biden's comments about Putin, Bibi and others who he seems to like to curse about.
Moonraker
Yes, but that country was Russia.
Blacklabel
Anything money related moving in Trump direction. Polymarket, DJT stock.
anything polling is less of a “lead” than ever for her.
kamala desperately doing more interviews then ever and failing more and more. Interviews getting less supportive, like they know she gonna lose so they need to pivot.
another Bob Woodward book right before an election again changes nothing. But man, Biden is super vulgar huh? Shocking!
deanzaZZR
Crazy, I know but world leaders should be in communication, especially during times of crisis. Maybe Bibi will pick up when Joe phones next time. We can only hope.
Blacklabel
Biden said Barack Obama is ultimately responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine due to his lack of action in 2014.
agreed?
TaiwanIsNotChina
Either Trump is a geneticist or there is come racism going on here.
Zaphod
That book sounds like a lot hearsay from a partisan activist. It is all about speculation, unnamed sources, suggestion. Clearly timed to influence the election, but at this point I doubt that anyone on either side is going to change their mind.
Some dude
Either Trump is a geneticist or there is come racism going on here.
Or he's talking about himself.
Blacklabel
Also deleted from CNN to focus more on the orange guy instead:
“Biden said he “should never have picked” Attorney General Merrick Garland during a conversation over his son’s legal troubles.”
“Biden has remained hands off with the Justice Department. But privately, Woodward reveals the president’s anger at the prosecution of his son, especially toward his attorney general.”
He did nothing about the Ukraine invasion: ”This is what Putin plans to do,” CIA Director Bill Burns said to Biden, according to Woodward.“This would be so crazy,” Biden responded.”
bass4funk
I don’t care what the left thinks, that’s not in the history books, Wikipedia or reality. Personal feelings don’t matter.
Some dude
That book sounds like a lot hearsay from a partisan activist
Given that Woodward is one of the men whose investigations brought down a republican president, that argument doesn't really hold much water.
bass4funk
From what I heard it always is with that guy.
Some dude
Also deleted from CNN to focus more on the orange guy instead:
“Biden said he “should never have picked” Attorney General Merrick Garland during a conversation over his son’s legal troubles.”
“Biden has remained hands off with the Justice Department. But privately, Woodward reveals the president’s anger at the prosecution of his son, especially toward his attorney general.”
He did nothing about the Ukraine invasion: ”This is what Putin plans to do,” CIA Director Bill Burns said to Biden, according to Woodward.“This would be so crazy,” Biden responded.”
Deleted? I read all those things in the CNN article.
Anyway, if they were deleted, how do you know what they say?
Blacklabel
in other words, a partisan activist.