Woodward’s New Book Alleges Trump Sent COVID Testing Machines to Putin, Maintained Secret Calls Post-Presidency
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
In a shocking revelation from Bob Woodward’s latest book, War, the esteemed journalist claims that former President Donald Trump secretly sent COVID-19 testing machines to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the height of the pandemic in 2020. According to Woodward, these machines, which were Abbott Point of Care COVID-19 tests authorized for emergency use only in the U.S., were not widely available at the time.
Trump allegedly agreed to send the machines for Putin’s personal use, with the Russian leader urging Trump to keep the gesture secret. “Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin reportedly said. Trump, however, dismissed the concern, replying, “I don’t care. Fine.” Putin insisted, “No, no. I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
According to The Daily Beast, Woodward further alleges that Trump and Putin maintained contact even after Trump left the White House. The former president reportedly had as many as seven secret phone calls with Putin since 2021, raising questions about the nature of their ongoing relationship.
In his book, Woodward wrote, “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.” In one incident, Trump is said to have asked an aide to leave the room during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago so he could speak privately with Putin.
The Trump campaign, however, has strongly denied these allegations, calling them baseless fabrications. Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, dismissed Woodward’s claims as “the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Cheung also described Woodward’s book as “trash” and suggested it belonged in the “fiction section of a discount bookstore.”
Cheung further attacked Woodward personally, saying, “Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he’s slow, lethargic, incompetent, and overall a boring person with no personality.” The Trump campaign not only denied the allegations of secret phone calls but also highlighted Trump’s ongoing $50 million lawsuit against Woodward. Trump accuses Woodward of unauthorized use of interview tapes from his 2020 book Rage, which was based on interviews conducted while Trump was still in office.
Despite the denials, Woodward’s book has sparked significant controversy, particularly around Trump’s relationship with Putin. One of Trump’s aides, Jason Miller, claimed he was unaware of any such calls. Meanwhile, Avril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence, did not rule out the possibility, stating that she could not be aware of all contacts between the two figures.
