WASHINGTON (EFE).— Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2121) sent covid tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use while the coronavirus devastated the world in 2020, according to a book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward. who in his day was one of the discoverers of the Watergate scandal.
This is stated by the Washington Post in an article in which parts of the book “War” are previewed, which will be published on October 15.
According to Woodward, Putin, terrified by the virus, accepted the supplies but took pains to avoid political repercussions, not for himself, but for his then-American counterpart.
He warned Trump not to reveal that he had sent the scarce medical equipment to Moscow. Putin, according to the book, told Trump: “I don’t want you to tell anyone because people will be angry with you, not me.”
Four years later, the personal relationship between Putin and the Republican Party presidential candidate has changed, although, according to Woodward, they have maintained contact over the years.
Thus, in early 2024, Trump ordered an aide to leave his office at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and Florida residence, so he could make a private phone call with the Russian leader.
The anonymous Trump aide cited in the book indicates that the magnate may have spoken with Putin up to seven times since he left the White House in 2021.
These interactions between Trump and Putin, immersed in a war against Ukraine for more than two years, lead Woodward to conclude that “Trump is worse than Richard Nixon,” whose presidency was undone by the Watergate scandal exposed half a century ago by Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein.
“Trump was the most reckless and impulsive president in American history and he is demonstrating the same character as a presidential candidate in 2024,” the journalist points out.
The Republican is one of the most critical figures with the aid provided by the United States to Ukraine, since he believes that European nations are the ones who should pay the most for the costs of the conflict and his vision is for the two countries to negotiate, instead of waiting for that Vladimir Putin ends up defeated.
If he wins the elections, he has stated, he is willing to work on a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
On this topic, the Hungarian Prime Minister, the ultranationalist Viktor Orbán, assured yesterday that if Trump returns to the White House after the November elections, he will uncork “several bottles of champagne.”
At a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France), where today he will speak in plenary session to present the priorities of the rotating presidency of the European Union – which Hungary holds this semester -, Orbán recalled that EU leaders will meet at an informal summit in Budapest on November 8, three days after the presidential elections in the United States, and asked the Twenty-Seven to react quickly if Trump is elected.
Because “if Trump is president, he will not wait for the inauguration ceremony (in January) to be able to manage peace in the war between Ukraine and Russia, as he promised and I would propose taking him seriously,” he said.
“It will act immediately, therefore, as European leaders, we do not have any time to lose… because there will not be two or three months as we usually have (…) so we have to react, first intellectually, philosophically and then strategically and act, as quickly as possible,” he added.
#Trump #worse #Nixon
