When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out worldwide in the first quarter of 2020, no one was sure what to do, how to protect themselves, what worked. Surgical masks, plastic gloves, bleach, medications. In the midst of that chaos, with the global supply chain shattered and governments desperately scrambling to obtain materials, the then President of the United States, Donald Trump, secretly sent virus detection tests to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, terrified of the possibility of getting infected and without quick access to them.
This is what renowned reporter Bob Woodward, one of the two who uncovered the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon, reveals in his latest book titled War, which will be released next week in the United States.
The New York Times and The Washington Post obtained an advance copy, explaining that while the journalist's book focuses on the Biden administration and the management of the two international conflicts that have marked it, the invasion of Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East, there are two relevant pieces of information about Trump, who aims to win the elections on November 5th and return to the White House.
The first is related to the shipment of positive detection tests and how it was kept completely secret, at Russia's request. The second involves half a dozen phone conversations allegedly held between the two in recent years, after the billionaire had already left the White House but aspired to return. The journalist claims that some of these conversations took place this year.
According to the book, Putin told Trump about the tests: "I don't want you to tell anyone because people will go crazy with you, not with me". However, during those months, Moscow managed to win several propaganda and image wars by precisely sending supplies to countries in need. Perhaps the most famous case was Italy, the country that suffered the early wave of deaths, closed cities, and showed images of the Russian army delivering boxes to civilian authorities. Therefore, receiving tests directly from their main enemy, or at least rival, would not have been easy to sell.
The Woodward book also delves into the relationship between the two leaders in more detail. It is no secret that Trump has always boasted of having a good relationship with Putin, whom he praised as "smart and a genius" for the invasion of Ukraine. His praises date back almost two decades. "Look at Putin, what he's doing with Russia. I mean, what's going on there. This guy, like it or not, is doing a great job in rebuilding Russia's image and also in rebuilding Russia, period," he told Larry King on CNN in 2006.
"Putin has big plans for Russia. He wants to surpass his neighbors so that Russia can dominate the oil supply to all of Europe," said Trump. "I respect Putin and the Russians, but I can't believe our leader (Obama) lets them get away with so much... I tip my hat to the Russians," he wrote in a book published in 2011. In 2013, the billionaire organized a Miss Universe contest in Moscow.
Since 2015, before winning the US elections, and up to today, he has always insisted on the good ties and excellent personal relationship. When asked on the Face the Nation program on CBS about the similarities between him and Putin, after both appeared in the same edition of 60 Minutes, Trump said that he and Putin are very different, but that they would get along well. "I think I would probably get along very well with him. And I don't think I would have the kind of problems we have now," he said back then.
His four years in power also tell the story of a good number of Trump's very close collaborators and members of his administration with more than close ties to Moscow, resignations, scandals, trials, and convictions. The book by Woodward states that the relationship between the two leaders has persisted over time, even after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Trump has always claimed that it would not have happened if he had been reelected.
The journalist's book says that earlier this year, the former president instructed an assistant to leave his office at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida, so that he could make a private phone call with the Russian leader. This was not an isolated incident. The book does not describe what they allegedly discussed, but the source, an anonymous assistant of Trump, claims that the Republican has spoken with Putin up to seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021.
Trump's campaign has denied both pieces of information, calling them fabrications. Spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to the Washington Post by harshly attacking Woodward. "None of these stories invented by Bob Woodward are true," and launched a series of personal attacks against the author, stating that Trump did not grant him an interview for the book. Cheung argued that the book "either belongs in the fiction bargain section of a bookstore or should be used as toilet paper," as reported by the capital's newspaper.