Donald Trump denies sending Vladimir Putin Covid-19 tests during the height of the pandemic. But Putin himself says it’s all true.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov confirmed journalist Bob Woodward’s account from his upcoming book, War, that Trump sent the tests, but denied Woodward’s claim that the two had spoken multiple times since Trump left office in 2021.
“We also sent equipment at the beginning of the pandemic,” Peskov said in a written response to questions from Bloomberg about the book. “But about the phone calls—it’s not true.”
Trump reportedly sent the tests to Putin amid a shortage of tests in the United States, and Putin told him to keep it a secret for fear of a backlash against Trump from the American public.
“I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me,” Putin reportedly said to Trump at the time.
Trump’s campaign vehemently denied the report Tuesday, calling Woodward a “total sleazebag,” “an angry, little man,” “a truly demented and deranged man,” and “a boring person with no personality.”
“President Trump gave him absolutely no access for this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or used as toilet tissue,” said Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, in a statement.
Kamala Harris and her campaign seized on the report.
“That is just the most recent, stark example of who Donald Trump is,” Harris said Tuesday to talk show host Howard Stern.
People were “scrambling to get these kits,” Harris said. “And this guy who is president of the United States is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator, for his personal use?”
Biden also attacked Trump for the same thing at a fundraiser in Pennsylvania Tuesday.
“Those tests to tell you whether you had Covid were in short supply, so he called his good friend, Putin, not a joke, to make sure he had the tests,” Biden said. “What’s wrong with this guy?”
Trump said at a press conference last month that Ukraine should surrender to Russia and make things “much better,” almost admitting that if he is elected president again, he plans to give Putin whatever he wants. He’s also said that wants to “use sanctions as little as possible” against countries like Russia, Iran, and China.
