Donald Trump maintained his relationship with Vladimir Putin after leaving the White Home in 2021, in accordance with Bob Woodward’s new e book. The veteran reporter claimed in Battle, set to launch subsequent week, that the previous president had “as many as seven” secret cellphone calls with the Russian president since his exit from the workplace.
Trump’s secret relationship with Putin revealed in bombshell e book
In early 2024, the GOP nominee ordered an aide out of his Mar-a-Lago workplace to have a dialog with Putin. The identical aide famous that the duo have spoken half a dozen occasions since Trump left the workplace, in accordance with Woodward’s e book, obtained by CNN. The e book additionally reveals the Republican candidate’s private items to the Russian chief.
Through the early levels of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, whereas nonetheless in workplace, Trump secretly despatched “Putin a bunch of Abbott Level of Care Covid check machines for his private use.” Woodward claimed that on the time, the Russian president instructed the ex-prez, “Please don’t inform anyone you despatched these to me.” To this, Trump replied, “I do not care. high-quality.”
“No, no,” Putin argued, including, “I don’t need you to inform anyone as a result of folks will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.” Woodward additionally wrote that Joe Biden’s Director of Nationwide Intelligence, Avril Haines “rigorously hedged” when requested about if any cellphone calls between Trump and Putin passed off after the previous left the workplace.
“I’d not purport to pay attention to all contacts with Putin. I wouldn’t purport to talk to what President Trump could or could not have completed,” Haines mentioned, in accordance with Woodward. Although the e book cited quite a few sources, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, mentioned that “none of those made-up tales by Bob Woodward are true.”
Cheung went on to name the claims “the work of a really demented and deranged man … clearly upset as a result of President Trump is efficiently suing him due to the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made beforehand.” In the meantime, Dmitri Peskov, a spokesperson for Putin, additionally shut down the claims, saying, “This isn’t true. It’s a typical bogus story within the context of the pre-election political marketing campaign,” per New York Instances.