Then-president Donald Trump secretly despatched COVID-19 take a look at kits to Vladimir Putin in 2020, regardless of a US scarcity throughout the pandemic and spoke a number of instances with the Russian chief after leaving workplace, based on a brand new e book by Bob Woodward.
Background: In excerpts of the explosive e book revealed on Tuesday by The Washington Put up, the place Woodward is an affiliate editor, he says Trump retains a private relationship with Putin whilst he campaigns for an additional time period and the Russian president conducts a warfare in opposition to US ally Ukraine.
With the coronavirus ravaging the world in 2020, Trump despatched a batch of take a look at kits to his counterpart in Moscow. Putin accepted the provides however sought to keep away from political fallout for Trump, urging that he not reveal the dispatch of medical tools, the e book says.
Key Quote: In line with Woodward, Putin advised Trump: “I do not need you to inform anyone as a result of individuals will get mad at you, not me.”
What else to know: Woodward has chronicled American presidencies for 50 years, and that is his fourth e book since Trump’s upset victory in 2016. He started his presidential reportages with Richard Nixon, who was undone by the Seventies Watergate scandal uncovered by Woodward and Put up colleague Carl Bernstein.
What comes subsequent: “Struggle” is ready for publication on 15 October, simply three weeks earlier than a important US election by which Trump is locked in a good race in opposition to vp Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
The Trump marketing campaign blasted the e book as “made-up tales.”
They’re “the work of a really demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” spokesman Steven Cheung advised AFP.
