A new book by legendary Watergate reporter Bob Woodward contains a series of explosive claims about high-profile political figures in the United States.
Among the allegations made in the book, Woodward claims that former President Donald Trump covertly sent Russian President Vladimir Putin COVID-19 tests during the pandemic, according to excerpts seen by CNN.
The book, called War, also claims that Trump spoke to Putin at least seven times following his departure from the White House.
Trump’s campaign team denied Woodward’s allegations and branded War a “trash book.”
Mikhail KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK AFP via Getty Images
Trump ‘secretly sent Putin Covid tests’
The book reveals new details about Trump’s relationship with Putin and claims that, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trump sent a covert shipment to the Russian president.
Trump reportedly “sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care COVID test machines for his personal use.” The Russian president allegedly asked his U.S. counterpart to keep the shipment quiet.
According to Woodward, Putin said to Trump: “Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me.” Woodward reports that Trump’s reply was: “I don’t care. Fine.”
“No, no,” Putin reportedly said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, rejected the allegations and told Newsweek they are “made up.”
“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.
“Woodward is an angry little man and is clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made previously.
“President Trump gave him absolutely no access for this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or is used as toilet tissue.
“Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he’s slow, lethargic, incompetent, and overall a boring person with no personality.”
Trump ‘Spoke To Putin At Least 7 Times’
Trump has faced criticism for maintaining a friendly relationship with the Russian leader since his time in office.
Woodwards’ book suggests that Trump and Putin have spoken as many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021.
According to excerpts of the book viewed by CNN, Trump earlier this year asked an unnamed aide to leave his office at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, so he could have a private phone conversation with Putin.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP
Woodward writes: “According to Trump’s aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021.”
When asked by Woodward about the contact, Trump’s campaign official Jason Miller was evasive, eventually responding: “Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I’m aware of. I haven’t heard that they’re talking, so I’d push back on that.”
In an interview with ABC News, Trump described Woodward as “a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations and told the New York Times: “It’s a typical bogus story in the context of the preelection political campaign.”
Lindsey Graham said Trump is Becoming ‘More Eractic’
Woodward writes in War that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham described the former president as “becoming more erratic.”
According to CNN, Graham told Trump to move on from his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden, telling him if he is reelected in 2024, “then January 6 won’t be your obituary.”
“I gave a speech today, and I only mentioned the 2020 election twice!” Trump reportedly said to Graham a few days later.
Woodward claims that Graham said of the former president: “Trump is becoming more erratic. These court cases. I think they would rattle anybody.”
