A new book from legendary Watergate journalist Bob Woodward reveals that former President Donald Trump in 2020 sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a secret stash of COVID-19 tests during the early days of the deadly pandemic that would go on to kill more than one million Americans.
CNN reports that Woodward's new book, entitled "War," claims that Trump "secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use."
What's more, writes Woodward, Putin urged Trump not to boast publicly about sending such equipment to him.
“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said, according to Woodward's sources.
“I don’t care,” Trump said in response. “Fine.”
“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
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And that's not all -- according to one of Woodward's sources, Trump kept in frequent contact with the former Russian president after leaving office.
“According to Trump’s aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021,” Woodward writes.
When asked about whether the former president and his one-time Russian counterpart had been keeping in touch, Trump campaign official Jason Miller pushed back in a hesitating manner.
“Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I’m aware of,” Miller told Woodward. “I have not heard that they’re talking, so I’d push back on that."