Unlock the US Election Countdown publication at no cost
The tales that matter on cash and politics within the race for the White Home
Donald Trump had as many as seven conversations with Vladimir Putin after he left the White Home, in line with explosive stories that increase recent questions in regards to the former US president’s relationship with the Russian chief.
The claims stem from a forthcoming e-book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, on account of be printed subsequent week. The Washington Submit, his longtime employer, first reported on the e-book’s contents.
Woodward’s e-book additionally reveals Trump secretly despatched Putin Covid-19 checks for his private use on the top of the pandemic, the report mentioned.
The e-book, Conflict, reportedly describes a scene earlier this yr, when Trump informed an aide to depart his Mar-a-Lago workplace so he may communicate privately by cellphone with Putin. The unnamed aide cited within the e-book advised the previous president and Russia’s chief had spoken as many as seven occasions since Trump left the White Home in 2021.
The stories increase new questions on Trump’s relationship with Putin with lower than a month to go till the US presidential election.
Trump, the Republican candidate, trails his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, by greater than three factors, in line with the Monetary Occasions ballot tracker, though they’re locked in a digital tie in all seven swing states that can decide who wins November’s vote.
A spokesperson for Simon & Schuster, Woodward’s writer, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The Trump marketing campaign’s communications director Steven Cheung rejected the stories and launched a private assault on Woodward, calling him a “actually demented and deranged man”.
Cheung mentioned Trump gave Woodward “completely no entry for this trash e-book”, including: “Woodward is a complete sleazebag who has misplaced it mentally.”
Trump’s operating mate JD Vance referred to as Woodward a “hack” and defended the previous president at a marketing campaign cease in Michigan on Tuesday.
“Have I talked to Donald Trump about his calls with Vladimir Putin? No. I’ve by no means had that dialog with Donald Trump in my life,” Vance mentioned in response to a reporter’s query. “Even whether it is true, is there one thing improper with talking to world leaders? Is there something improper with partaking in diplomacy?”
However Harris informed radio character Howard Stern in an interview on Tuesday that the stories demonstrated “who Trump is”.
“Individuals in America have been struggling to get checks and this man is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator for his private use?” she mentioned.
“That’s simply the latest stark instance of who Trump is. He secretly despatched Covid take a look at kits for the non-public use of Putin of Russia, an adversary to america, when he was speaking about People ought to be placing bleach of their blood.”
Woodward, 81, turned well-known within the Nineteen Seventies when he and fellow Washington Submit reporter Carl Bernstein broke tales in regards to the Watergate scandal, which led to then president Richard Nixon’s resignation. He has written greater than a dozen bestselling books, together with 4 volumes on the Trump presidency.
Trump has sued Woodward over a 2022 audiobook based mostly on 20 interviews that he carried out with the previous president between 2016 and 2020. Trump has argued that publishing the tapes violates his copyright, whereas Simon & Schuster has repeatedly filed motions to dismiss the case.
Trump’s attainable return to the White Home may have important implications for Russia, Ukraine and the Nato alliance. The previous president — who referred to as Putin a “genius” after Russia invaded Ukraine once more in 2022 — has mentioned he would finish the combating in Ukraine on “day one” if he’s re-elected, however has not detailed how he would achieve this. In final month’s presidential debate, Trump declined to say that he wished Ukraine to win the warfare.
Harris has accused Trump of pandering to Putin and informed CBS Information in an interview that aired on Monday evening that she wouldn’t meet “bilaterally” with the Russian president except his Ukrainian counterparts have been supplied a seat on the negotiating desk.
US Election Countdown
Signal as much as our US Election Countdown publication, your important information to the twists and turns of the 2024 presidential election