Putin ‘begged Trump to keep quiet’ over secret package sent to Russia | World | News
An explosive new book is set to reveal high-level discussions held by Joe Biden and Donald Trump during their time as president.
‘War’, written by respected journalist Bob Woodward, reveals the true feelings of the US presidents towards world leaders including Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu.
The book set to be released on October 15 details Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia’s president during and after his time in office, following lengthy conversations with those closest to the Republican.
In one strange encounter, it is claimed Trump sent a shipment of Covid tests to Putin during the early months of the pandemic.
Woodward alleges that Trump had “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”
Putin was famously extremely cautious throughout the pandemic, forcing anybody set to see him to isolate for two weeks prior and keeping more than five metres distance during the eventual meeting.
The USA and Russia did publicly cooperate during the pandemic, with the two countries exchanging medical equipment but the shipment of covid tests was kept quiet, apparently at the behest of the Russian president.
Wood claims Putin told Trump: “Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me.”
Trump is said to have replied: “I don’t care. Fine.”
Putin is understood to have responded: “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
Trump is believed to have kept in contact with Putin following his 2020 election defeat, although the precise number of occasions on which they have spoken is unknown.
The former president admitted in his TV debate with his 2024 rival Kamala Harris that he had spoken to the Russian leader since leaving the White House.
In one part of the book, Woodward recounts a moment at Mar a-Lago where Trump tells a senior aide to leave the room so “he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin”.
He writes: “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.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed he would be able to bring Russia and Ukraine to a peace agreement.
