Exactly how close Donald Trump is to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a significant topic of contention for nearly a decade. We know both that Trump has expressed admiration for Putin and that he sought to do business in Russia before his presidency, including much more than he let on at the time. As president, he appeared to tilt U.S. policy closer to Russia than has traditionally been the case.
While some of the more salacious things alleged about the Trump/Putin relationship have not panned out, including much of what was in the infamous Steele Dossier, it’s pretty clear that Trump is an admirer of Putin, as he tends to have positive feelings about the “strength” of dictators.
Also, it appears that Trump and Putin have kept in touch since Trump departed office.
As the coronavirus tore through the world in 2020, and the United States confronted a shortage of tests designed to detect the illness, then-President Donald Trump secretly sent coveted tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use. https://t.co/TmOBpCtNQ0
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 8, 2024
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It’s part of a new book called War by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, the details of which were revealed by CNN Tuesday. The book appears to focus on various foreign policy stories from during the Biden presidency, including the war that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the post-October 7 conflagration in the Middle East.
Woodward reports, citing an unnamed Trump aide, that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House. At one point, at Mar-a-Lago, Trump asked an aide to leave the room so that “he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
The book also reveals that in 2020, Trump, as president, “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use,” while Trump agreed to Putin’s demand that the gift remain a secret.
Other revelations include reports about Trump’s erratic behavior since leaving office, including staunch Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham admitting that Trump lost the 2020 election, and stating that “going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea.”
“You’ve got a problem with moderate women,” Graham said to Trump after the 2022 midterms, the book says. “The people that think that the earth is flat and we didn’t go to the moon, you’ve got them. Let that go.”
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune image library.
