"Please Don't Tell Anybody": Book Claims Trump-Putin Share Closer Relationship That What Is Known To Public

As per a forthcoming boom by a veteran US journalist Bob Woodward, Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin share a closer relationship than what is known to the public. Excerpts from the book claim that the two have talked to each other over phone calls on as many as seven occasions since Trump left office in 2021. Trump campaign rejected the claims.

Excerpts from the book named as War, which is to be released on October 15, were published by CNN, and Washington Post. Shedding light on the alleged Trump and Putin’s bond.

It is said that Trump had sent scarce and not easily available COVID test kits to Putin for personal use, during the pandemic. Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use”, Woodward has written.

According to the book, Putin, who isolated himself during the early days of the outbreak and was concerned about contracting the virus, received the gift but urged his then US counterpart to keep this favour a secret. “Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me”, Woodward quotes Putin as telling Trump

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According to the book, Putin asked Trump to not make the gift public to save the latter from a political fallout. While Trump’s first reaction was “I don’t care,” and “Fine” to this request, Putin insisted, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me,” according to the excerpt published in CNN.

The veteran journalist also says that a close aide of Trump revealed he was asked to leave the room by him so “he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.” The incident reportedly happened at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago.

Trump campaign rejected the claims. The campaign’s communication director Steven Cheung told The Hill that, “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true” and that Trump did not give access to Woodward for the new book. He also added that Woodward “suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome”, as quoted by the report.

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Speaking to Business Insider, Cheung said, “Woodward is an angry, little man and is clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made previously”.