Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have a closer relationship than is known, according to revelations in veteran American journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book. The two have spoken to each other on phone calls about seven times since Trump left office in 2021, according to excerpts from Bob Woodward’s book.
Excerpts from Bob Woodward’s upcoming book War, to be released on October 15, were published by CNN and the Washington Post and shed light on Trump and Putin’s relationship.
The book states that when the world was battling the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, Donald Trump sent Putin some COVID testing kits for personal use, which were rare at that time and not easily available. “Trump secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott point-of-care COVID testing machines for his personal use,” Mr. Woodward wrote.
Putin, who isolated himself in the early days of the outbreak and was concerned about contracting the virus, received a gift but urged his then-US counterpart to keep the favor a secret. Mr. Woodward quoted Putin as telling Trump, “Please don’t tell anyone you sent this to me.”
According to the book, Putin asked Trump not to make the gift public to avoid political damage. While Trump’s first response was “I don’t care,” and “Okay” to this request, Putin insisted, “I don’t want you to tell anyone because people will be angry at you, not at me. They don’t care. It’s not about me,” according to an excerpt published on CNN.
In another episode, Mr Woodward says a close Trump aide revealed he was asked to leave the room so “he could have a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.” The incident reportedly took place at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago.
According to The Hill, the revelations made in the book have been rejected by Trump’s campaign. Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told The Hill, “None of these stories made up by Bob Woodward are true” and that Trump did not give Mr. Woodward access to the new book.
Mr. Cheung is also quoted as saying that Mr. Woodward is “suffering from a debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome.”
In a similar statement to Business Insider, Mr. Cheung said, “Woodward is an angry, short man and is clearly upset that President Trump is successfully suing him over the unauthorized publication of recordings he made earlier. “