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Donald Trump has reportedly spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin as many as seven times since leaving the White House.
A new book from journalist Bob Woodward includes extensive reporting about president Joe Biden’s “blunt, profanity-laced” behind-the-scenes responses to Putin’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza.
Mr Woodward’s War – his fourth book since Mr Trump won in 2016, excerpts of which were published by CNN – also contains previously unreported details about the former president’s relationship with the authoritarian leader, including a moment at Mar-a-Lago where he told a senior aide to leave the room so they could have a “private phone call.”
“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,” Mr Woodward writes.
Mr Woodward reports that he asked chief Trump aide Jason Miller whether Mr Trump and Mr Putin have spoken since leaving the White House in January 2021, to which Mr Miller replied: “Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I’m aware of.”
“I have not heard that they’re talking, so I’d push back on that,” Mr Miller added, according to Mr Woodward.
Mr Biden’s director of national intelligence Avril Haines “carefully hedged” when Mr Woodward asked about whether there were any post-presidency calls between Mr Trump and Mr Putin, the famed journalist writes.
“I would not purport to be aware of all contacts with Putin. I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done,” Ms Haines told Mr Woodward.
Mr Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign has vehemently denied Mr Woodward’s reporting.
“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,” campaign communications director Steven Cheung told The Independent on Tuesday.
“Woodward is an angry, little man and is clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorised publishing of recordings he made previously,” Cheung added.
“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 used as toilet tissue,” according to Mr Cheung. “Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he’s slow, lethargic, incompetent and overall a boring person with no personality.”
Attorneys for Mr Woodward have sought to dismiss a nearly $50m lawsuit from Mr Trump, who has accused the journalist of releasing tapes of their interviews for a separate book without his consent. Mr Woodward interviewed Mr Trump at last 19 times between December 2019 and August 2020 for Rage, which was published in September 2020.
In court filings, Mr Woodward’s team has argued that the journalist made fair use of Trump’s interviews, which were examples of “classic news reporting” that advanced “the need to convey information to the public accurately.”
Mr Trump himself – while standing next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York City last month – has said he has a “very good relationship” with Mr Putin.
“And I think if we win, we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” Mr Trump told reporters on September 27.
“I hope we have more good relations between us,” Mr Zelensky interjected.
Mr Woodward’s War does not describe their alleged conversations, but the interactions between Mr Trump and Mr Putin have shaped Mr Woodward’s reporting that allegations of Mr Trump’s corruption have made him the “most reckless and impulsive president in American history and is demonstrating the very same character as a presidential candidate in 2024.”
Mr Woodward’s reporting famously unraveled the presidency of Richard Nixon, whose Watergate scandal was exposed in a series of damning reports by Mr Woodward and his colleague at The Washington Post Carl Bernstein.
His latest book also reports that Mr Trump had secretly sent Mr Putin several Covid-19 test machines for his personal use at the height of the pandemic.
Russia and the US did exchange medical equipment at the time, but Mr Putin reportedly told Mr Trump to keep the deployment of testing machines quiet.
“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Mr Putin told Mr Trump, according to the journalist.
“I don’t care,” Mr Trump replied, Mr Woodward writes. “Fine.”
“No, no,” Mr 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.”
War is scheduled for publication on October 15.
