He’s not going to let her have her way.
The Kremlin has surprisingly aligned with journalist Bob Woodward in a recent revelation regarding former President Donald Trump. In Woodward’s upcoming book, he details an incident during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, where Trump secretly sent COVID-19 testing machines from Abbott to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use. This disclosure is significant, as it raises questions about Trump’s pandemic response and international relations.
In reaction to the claims, the Trump campaign dismissed Woodward’s book as fictional. However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov confirmed that the COVID test machines were indeed received. Peskov remarked that during the early days of the pandemic, many nations engaged in mutual support by sending medical supplies to each other, which included Russia sending 60 tons of medical equipment to the U.S. at the same time.
While Woodward’s book recounts Putin expressing his desire for secrecy regarding the exchange—fearing backlash from the public—Peskov contested another claim that Trump has maintained frequent communication with Putin since leaving office, labeling it as untrue. In the book, Trump reportedly instructed an aide to leave the room for what he characterized as a private conversation with Putin, yet Trump’s former officials now claim they are unaware of any such calls.
Woodward’s previous interactions with Trump, which included 18 taped interviews for an earlier book, soured when Woodward characterized Trump as unfit for the presidency, leading Trump to sue him over the release of the recordings. Other sections of Woodward’s new book discuss President Biden’s interactions with Putin regarding Ukraine and his contentious exchanges with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In response to Woodward’s revelations, Trump’s spokesperson issued a vehement statement, characterizing the journalist as mentally unstable and claiming his book was not worth reading. The rhetoric underscored Trump’s tendency to retaliate quickly against criticism, as exemplified by his recent comments on a radio interview involving Vice President Kamala Harris, where he disparaged the interviewer, Howard Stern, for asking easy questions. This reflects a broader pattern in Trump’s political strategy, focusing on counter-attacks against perceived adversaries.
