Donald Trump has always boasted of being in tune with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The last time he did so was during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly last September. “I have very good relations with Putin, if I win we will resolve them quickly,” he told Zelensky about the war in Ukraine. Now, this “good relationship” can be quantified: the book War by journalist Bob Woodward, reveals that in 2020, Trump secretly sent COVID tests to Putin for his personal use when there was a shortage of them, according to Tuesday’s report. Washington Post.
Putin, who had then isolated himself for fear of the virus, accepted the conditional tests sent by Trump with fear of the political consequences this gesture could have if it became known. The Russian president did not fear for his own reputation, but for that of the current Republican presidential candidate. According to the book, Putin told Trump: “I don’t want you to tell anyone about this because people will be angry with you, not me.” »
Woodward, the journalist Washington Post which exposed Watergate, also reveals how, four years after this episode, Trump remained in contact with the Russian leader after his presidency. Specifically, a Trump adviser quoted in the book claims he could have spoken with Putin “up to seven times” since Trump left the White House in 2021. In 2024, the former president ordered the one of his aides to stay away from his office in 2024. Mar-a-Lago, so he can speak on the phone with Putin, according to what he says.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Trump has opposed the United States sending military aid to kyiv’s troops. Earlier this year, the Republican was responsible for promoting the blocking in Congress of a major aid package for Ukrainian troops, which was not revealed until April. In February, Trump also suggested he would “encourage” Putin to attack NATO allies because they are not contributing enough to collective defense. At the NATO summit in Washington last July, the Alliance had already prepared to guard against a possible Trump mandate if he won the November 5 presidential elections.
Biden called Netanyahu a ‘liar’
While Trump reportedly remained in contact with Putin, one of his security advisers, Keith Kellogg, met secretly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year, according to Woodward. Upon returning from the trip, Kellogg released a report accusing Biden of responsibility for the Hamas attack: “The visit confirms the erosion of US global deterrence under the Biden administration and its failed policies towards Iran have “opened the United States to regional war”. in the Middle East with devastating consequences for our ally Israel. »
At the same time as the visit, the Biden administration was focusing its efforts on concluding ceasefire negotiations as Israel threatened to invade Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. The American president, after having had a series of clashes with Netanyahu, threatened his Israeli counterpart to stop sending him weapons if he attacked the area south of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army eventually invaded Rafah, where thousands of Palestinians were taking refuge fleeing the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, and Biden did not carry out his threat – Washington is Tel Aviv’s main ally and its largest supplier of weapons.
“He’s a damn liar,” Biden said privately about Netanyahu after Israel entered Rafah, according to Woodward and reported by CNN. “That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, is a bad guy. “It’s fucking bad,” the US president also said of Netanyahu in the spring, Woodward writes, according to CNN. The US president had similar words about Putin when he invaded Ukraine in 2022. “That fucking Putin,” he told his advisers. “Putin is bad. “We are dealing with the embodiment of evil.”
Now, a year after the conflict and on the eve of the elections, Netanyahu has intensified his offensive by attacking Lebanon. The rhythms are not a coincidence: the Israeli prime minister took advantage of the latter part of the campaign, knowing that Biden has less room to maneuver and in the hope that a second Trump term will give him carte blanche in operations military in the region.
In the book, which will be published October 15, Woodward goes so far as to claim that Trump is worse than Richard Nixon, who left the presidency after the Watergate scandal. Woodward, a chronicler of presidential figures for 50 years, concludes that Trump is unprepared for the presidency, while President Biden and his team, despite their mistakes, are showing “leadership”, according to him. Concerning Vice-President Kamala Harris, and current Democratic candidate in the elections, Woodward assures that she had no influence on the foreign policy of the White House during these four years.
Harris, who has attempted to be more critical of the Gaza massacre than Biden, reportedly has a more moderate stance on privacy. Woodward says the vice president, after holding a tense meeting with Netanyahu last July and distancing herself, has been much friendlier to the Israeli prime minister in private. This duality, according to Woodward, infuriated Bibi.
