Trump spoke to Putin as many as 7 times since leaving office, Bob Woodward reports in new book
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has had no fewer than seven private telephone conversations Vladimir Putin since he left office and secretly sent the Russian president COVID-19 testing machines during the height of the pandemic, Bob Woodward reported in his new book ‘War’.
In the famed Watergate reporter’s latest book, Woodward reports that Trump asked an aide to leave his office at his Florida resort. Mar-a-Lagoso that the former president could have a private conversation with Putin in early 2024. The aide, who did not name Woodward, said there have been multiple conversations between Trump and Putin since Trump left office, perhaps as many as seven in that period, according to the book.
Woodward also reports that Trump sent Putin COVID-19 testing machines for personal use as the virus began to spread in 2020. Putin told Trump not to tell anyone because people would be mad at Trump about it, but Trump said he didn’t care if everyone knew, according to the book. Trump ultimately agreed not to tell anyone.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, derided the reporting as “made-up stories” and said the book is a work of fiction that could double as toilet paper.
“None of these fabricated stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and disturbed man suffering from a debilitating form of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Cheung said in a statement.
He added: “President Trump has given him absolutely no access to this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or is used as toilet paper. Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he is slow. , lethargic, incompetent and generally a boring person with no personality.
A copy of the book, due out next week, was obtained early by The Associated Press. CNN first reported the contents of the book on Tuesday.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has met or spoken to several foreign leaders since leaving office, most recently meeting in New York with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky amid rising public tensions between the two The defense of Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
Trump has said he wants “peace” and the war must end. The former president has been critical of US support for Ukraine said the country should have made concessions to Putin before Russia invaded in 2022. He also previously praised his good relationship with Putin and called the Russian leader “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine.
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Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.