Trump campaign blasts Woodward; denies secret Putin calls

Former President Trump’s campaign is rejecting accounts in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book that the Republican presidential nominee has held multiple phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office in January 2021.

Woodward also wrote in his book, “War,” that Trump agreed to secretly send Putin COVID-19 testing equipment. 

Steven Cheung, the communications director for the Trump campaign, told The Hill in a statement that “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true” and said Trump gave no access to the journalist for the latest book, as Trump had for past books.

Cheung said Woodward “suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

The spokesperson further pointed to Trump’s lawsuit against Woodward, in which the former president is seeking $50 million from the veteran journalist over his publication of tapes of interviews he conducted with Trump while he was in office between December 2019 and August 2020, which featured in the 2020 book “Rage.”

Woodward and his publisher filed to get the case dismissed in September 2023. The Hill has reached out to Woodward for comment on the Trump campaign’s latest criticism.

Cheung’s comments came in response to a CNN report on Woodward’s new book “War,” detailing that, in 2020, Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”

Putin told Trump to not tell anybody, according to Woodward, with Trump responding, “I don’t care … fine.”

Woodward wrote that, according to Trump’s aides, there have been as many as seven phone calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021, according to CNN.

Woodward also cited Trump aide Jason Miller as not being aware of any calls between Trump and Putin, but added that Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of national intelligence, did not conclusively rule out contacts between the Russian leader and the former president. 

“I would not purport to be aware of all contacts with Putin. I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done,” Haines said, according to Woodward.