Ahead of next week’s release of “War,” a new book by journalist Bob Woodward, new details are emerging about Donald Trump’s ongoing relationship with Vladimir Putin, including a secret shipment of Covid-19 test equipment sent to the Russian dictator for his personal use.
During the height of the pandemic, the U.S. and Russia exchanged medical equipment such as ventilators, but Trump also secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines. Putin reportedly told Trump not to say anything publicly about the exchange because “people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
Citing an unnamed Trump aide at Mar-a-Lago, Woodward reports that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021. Woodward recalls the aide to Trump being asked to leave the room so “he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Woodward asked Trump aide Jason Miller whether Trump and Putin had spoken since he left the White House. “Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I’m aware of,” Miller told Woodward.
Woodward writes that Biden’s Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines “carefully hedged” any knowledge of Trump’s contacts with Putin.
The Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung released a statement disparaging Woodward, and denying the accusations.
“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, adding that Woodward was “a total sleazebag” who is “slow, lethargic, incompetent and overall a boring person with no personality.”
Cheung said Trump did not give Woodward access for the book and noted that TFG was suing the author over a previous book.
The Kremlin also denied Woodward’s reporting, calling it political ahead of the presidential election.
Other tidbits in the book:
Senator Lindsey Graham:
“Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea,” golf buddy Lindsey Graham said. “Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in.”
Ms. Lindsey also gave advice regarding the 2024 campaign: “You’ve got a problem with moderate women,” Graham told Trump after the midterms. “The people that think that the earth is flat and we didn’t go to the moon, you’ve got them. Let that go.”
While visiting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in March, Ms. Lindsey said, “Hey, let’s call Trump.” According to Woodward, MBS had an aide bring over a bag with about 50 burner phones, pulling out one labeled “TRUMP 45.”
President Biden’s F-Bombs:
- While Biden rarely invokes Trump’s name publicly, referring to him as “my predecessor” or “the former guy,” in private, Biden calls him “that fucking asshole.”
- “That fucking Putin,” Biden said to advisers in the Oval Office not long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- “That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad fucking guy!”
- “He’s a fucking liar,” Biden said privately of Netanyahu, after Israel went into Rafah.
- “Bibi, what the fuck?” Biden yelled at Netanyahu in July after an airstrike killed a Hezbollah commander and three civilians. “You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Biden said to Netanyahu.
- When Kamala Harris reached out to one of Biden’s closest associates about Biden’s isolation, she asked him to talk to him more frequently. Woodward writes, “The Biden associate was candid with the vice president. Look, one of the biggest reasons that Biden calls me, the associate said, is I provide him a level of comfort to the point where he can swear freely about ‘what a fucking asshole Joe Manchin is.’” The vice president laughed. “That might be the only reason that he still really is comfortable with me to a point,” Harris said, according to Woodward, “because he knows that I’m the only person around who knows how to properly pronounce the word motherfucker.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Putin’s Threat of Nuclear Weapons Response in Ukraine
Alarming intelligence reports suggested the White House believed there was a 50% chance Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
Biden instructed National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to tell Russia what the U.S. would do to them in response.
Defense Secretary Austin spoke in a tense phone call with his Russian counterpart in October 2022. “If you did this, all the restraints that we have been operating under in Ukraine would be reconsidered,” Austin said to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Woodward. “This would isolate Russia on the world stage to a degree you Russians cannot fully appreciate.”
“I don’t take kindly to being threatened,” Shoigu responded.
“Mr. Minister,” Austin said, according to Woodward, “I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.”
Two days later, the Russians were claiming Ukraine was planning to use a dirty bomb.
“We don’t believe you,” Austin said firmly in response, according to Woodward. “We don’t see any indications of this, and the world will see through this.”
“Don’t do it,” he said to Shoigu.
“I understand,” Shoigu replied.
