Trump secretly sent American coronavirus tests to the world authorities to Putin in 2020, when they were in short supply, Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward writes in the book “War.”
According to him, at the beginning of the pandemic, Putin was “terrified of the virus,” so Trump gave him tests for personal use. The Russian president accepted the supplies, but warned Trump not to reveal it. Putin said that if they find out about this, “people will be angry with you.” [Трампа]and not at me.”
According to the book, at the end of his presidency, Trump called Putin up to seven times. One such call in particular took place in early 2024 when Trump asked an aide to leave his office at his Florida residence so he could have a private phone call with the Russian leader, Woodward says.
The book’s author calls Trump “the most reckless and impulsive president in American history” and says he is unfit to serve as president again. At the same time, Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chung said that “none of these fictitious stories of Bob Woodward are true.”
Woodward also mentions Biden in his book. In particular, the author argues, while Biden publicly supported Israel, he fought with Netanyahu over Israel’s handling of the war.
In private conversations, the US President called him a “damn bad guy” and a “liar” after the Israeli military launched an operation in the city of Rafah.
The book “War” will be published on October 15.
Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chung said:
None of these fictional Bob Woodward stories are true,” making a series of personal attacks on the author and claiming that Trump did not interview him for the book. Chung argued that the book “or belongs in the trash bin in the fiction section of a bookstore with discounts, or it is used as toilet paper.
Publishing the book on the eve of the presidential election, Woodward, who has chronicled the successes and failures of US presidents for 50 years, concludes that Trump is unworthy of office, while President Joe Biden and his team, despite mistakes, have demonstrated “steady and focused leadership.” .
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, appears several times in the story, with Woodward presenting her as Biden’s shrewd and loyal No. 2, but not as an influential voice in his administration’s foreign policy.
The book is Woodward’s fourth since Trump’s surprise victory in 2016. It focuses primarily on the two wars consuming Biden’s national security team—Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, and Israel’s campaign against Hamas and other Iranian-backed proxy groups following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
The book also examines the long shadow Trump has cast over the foreign conflicts of the past four years and the bitter US political environment in which they unfolded. It also contains Biden’s candid assessment of his mistakes, particularly his decision to appoint Merrick Garland as attorney general. Reacting to the prosecution of his son Hunter by a special prosecutor appointed by Garland amid partisan accusations of the Justice Department’s prosecution of Trump, the president told an associate:
Garland shouldn’t have been chosen.
Woodward shows how Biden weighed his fate before dropping out of the presidential race in July, including during a lunch earlier this month with Antony Blinken, his secretary of state. Blinken, Woodward reports, warned Biden in a private dining room outside the Oval Office that everyone’s legacy boils down to one sentence — and that if he continues to campaign and loses to Trump, that will be his legacy.
At the end of the dinner, however, Blinken believed the president was leaning toward staying in the race, underscoring how unpredictable Biden’s decision-making remains until the last moment.
“War” highlights the Biden team’s desperate and often unsuccessful efforts to prevent an escalation of fighting in the Middle East – fighting that the president has come to view as inseparable from the political fortunes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the political fortunes of the United States.
One of Trump’s national security advisers, Keith Kellogg, secretly met with Netanyahu during a trip to Israel earlier this year, Woodward said. Upon his return, Kellogg publicly circulated a note in which he effectively blamed Biden for the Hamas attack on Israel, writing: “This visit confirmed that the erosion of American deterrence globally and the Biden administration’s failed Iran policy have opened America to regional war. for our ally Israel.”
At the time, Biden’s advisers were pushing Israeli leaders to agree to a ceasefire as part of efforts to prevent an incursion into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Their exhortations were in vain; The offensive on Rafah began in May. No one felt the limits of the administration’s ability to contain Israel more keenly than Blinken.
It was clear that Blinken had no influence, Woodward writes.
Trump’s influence in Ukraine was also visible, even from his home at Mar-a-Lago. The former president’s resistance to funding Kyiv’s war efforts created a blockade of GOP support in the House of Representatives.
Last spring, House Speaker Mike Johnson (D-Louisiana) was able to persuade Trump to soften his position, according to Woodward, not by showing him the justice of the Ukraine case, but by convincing him that the aid package would help the Republican Conference’s electoral chances and thus benefit him personally on the eve of the November elections.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.