WASHINGTON — Just weeks before an election, Americans are once again being confronted with a familiar if vexing question that has never been definitively resolved: What is up with former President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia?
Eight years almost to the day after U.S. intelligence agencies publicly warned voters that Russia was trying to interfere in the 2016 campaign, a new attention-grabbing book Tuesday revived the mystery of the relationship between the two by reporting that they secretly have been in touch over the past few years.
The book, by journalist Bob Woodward, cited an unnamed aide saying that the former president and current Republican nominee had spoken with Putin as many as seven times since leaving office in 2021, even as Trump was pressuring Republicans to block military aid to Ukraine to fight Russian invaders. The book also said that Trump, while still in office in 2020, sent COVID-19 testing equipment to Putin early in the pandemic for his personal use.
While other journalists were not able to confirm the post-White House contacts Tuesday, the report roiled the presidential campaign and set Washington buzzing. Former presidents often speak with foreign leaders, but it would be highly unusual for one to talk with an avowed adversary of the United States on the opposite side of a war without clearing it with the White House or State Department first.
Trump has long courted and embraced Putin, even praising him as a “genius” when he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Trump has refused to say that Ukraine should win the war, resisted more U.S. arms for Ukraine to defend itself and publicly said that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that do not spend enough on their own militaries.
As recently as a week ago, Trump boasted that he has “a very good relationship” with Putin, one that would enable him if he wins to negotiate a peace deal within 24 hours, even before his inauguration — on terms that, as described by his running mate, would be favorable to the Kremlin. Trump has mentioned the Russian leader by name during 41 campaign rallies this year, far more often than in any year since he first became a presidential candidate in 2015, according to a database search.
Whether Trump has stayed in touch with Putin since leaving office remained unconfirmed. Woodward based his report on a single Trump aide he did not identify in his book, titled “War” and obtained by The New York Times and other news outlets Tuesday in advance of its publication next week.
The aide described being ordered out of Trump’s office at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in early 2024 so that the former president could take a call with Putin. The aide told Woodward that Trump had spoken with Putin multiple other times since leaving office, perhaps as many as seven, according to the book.
The aide offered no further details, and Woodward acknowledged in his book that he could not verify it with other sources. Twenty current and former Trump and Biden administration officials and career intelligence officials reached by the Times on Tuesday said they had no knowledge of any contacts between Trump and Putin in the years since Trump left office, although several said it was not inconceivable.
Trump’s campaign dismissed Woodward’s book in a statement by assailing the author with typically personal insults — “a total sleazebag” who is “slow, lethargic, incompetent and overall a boring person with no personality” — without addressing any of the specifics reported in it.
“None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Steven Cheung, the campaign communications director, said in the statement.
Cheung said Trump had not given Woodward access for “War” and noted that the former president was suing the author over a previous book. But the statement did not explicitly say whether or not the former president had spoken with Putin since leaving office, and the campaign did not respond to a message asking that directly.
The Kremlin for its part denied the reporting in Woodward’s book about conversations between Trump and Putin. “This is not true,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson, said in a text message. “It’s a typical bogus story in the context of the pre-election political campaign.”
Woodward, who rose to fame with his Watergate reporting that helped bring down President Richard Nixon, regularly produces bestselling books with explosive reporting relying on access to high-level government officials from both parties. Some of his most sensational stories over the years, often attributed to anonymous sources, have drawn denials by the people cited in them, and some fellow journalists have questioned his methods. At the same time, many of his most memorable scoops over the years have been borne out in large part by later reporting or memoirs.
Woodward’s latest book includes other tantalizing stories that had Washington talking on Tuesday, too, including profanity-laced tirades by President Joe Biden about and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip over the past year.
Among the episodes Woodward recounts is a July 4 private lunch after Biden’s disastrous debate performance in which Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a longtime confidant, tried to gently broach the idea that the president drop out of the race.
“I don’t want to see your legacy jeopardized,” Blinken reportedly told Biden, saying that any president gets “one sentence” as his legacy in history. “If this decision leads you to staying in and winning reelection, great,” Blinken said. “If it leads to you staying in and losing reelection, that’s the sentence.”
The book also reports that Biden came to regret appointing Attorney General Merrick Garland, expressing fury after he appointed a special counsel to investigate the president’s son, Hunter Biden. “Should never have picked Garland,” Biden told an associate, according to the book.
After the botched troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the book reported, Biden received commiseration from a surprising source: former President George W. Bush. “Oh boy, I can understand what you’re going through,” Bush was said to have told Biden, saying that he too had felt ill-advised by intelligence officials.
As for Russia, Biden faulted his own former ticket mate, President Barack Obama, for mishandling the response to Russia’s initial, more limited invasion of Ukraine in 2014. “That’s why we are here,” Biden is quoted telling a friend. The Obama-Biden administration messed up, he added. “Barack never took Putin seriously.”
Much attention focused on the book’s report about Trump sending Putin what were then rare Abbott Point of Care COVID test machines. Putin, who has been described as particularly anxious about being infected at the time, urged Trump to not publicly reveal the gesture because it could damage the American president politically, according to the book. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me,” Putin reportedly told him.
U.S. and Russian officials did publicly announce in 2020 that COVID supplies had been sent to Russia shortly after a May 7 telephone call between Trump and Putin. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time that “some testing equipment as well as ventilators” had been sent. But officials did not say that any of the equipment was for Putin’s personal use or disclose that the Russian president had advised Trump to keep their conversation secret.
After reports about Woodward’s book Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Trump for being too close to Putin, citing the provision of COVID testing equipment. “Everybody was scrambling to get these kits,” she said during an interview on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show. “This guy who is president of the United States is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator, for his personal use.” By the end of the day, her campaign had put out a social media ad pointing to the reports.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, responded to questions about the former president’s possible contacts with Putin by insulting Woodward before saying he had not discussed the matter with Trump. “Even if it’s true,” Vance added, there would be nothing wrong with speaking to world leaders.
In fact, Trump has openly hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and others at Mar-a-Lago. Just last month, he had dinner in New York with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain. But those meetings were publicly known, Trump posed for pictures with his guests, and all of the leaders are allies of the United States.
The release of Woodward’s book produced a déjà vu feeling for some in Washington. On Oct. 7, 2016, just weeks before the presidential election, U.S. intelligence agency directors released a statement about Russian election interference.
U.S. intelligence agencies later concluded that Putin had ordered the Russian government to intervene in the 2016 election to help Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump rejected that conclusion, suggesting that he believed Putin’s denial. While special counsel Bob Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy that could be proved in court, he documented an unusual number of contacts between Russia and people in Trump’s circle during that campaign.
Woodward’s book leaves as many questions as it does answers. It quotes Jason Miller, a top campaign aide to Trump, saying that he had “not heard that they’re talking, so I’d push back on that.” But Miller also said that “I’m sure they’d know how to get in touch with each other” if they did want to talk.
Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence appointed by Biden, hedged on the question when asked by Woodward. “I would not purport to be aware of all contacts with Putin,” she told him. “I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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