Trump called Putin as many as seven times since he left the White House: new book

Former President Donald Trump has supposedly called Russian President Vladimir Putin “as many as seven” times since he left the White House less than four years ago, an explosive new book claims.Trump — who was criticized during his presidency for his seemingly cozy ties to his Russian counterpart — has kept in touch with Putin since he left office in January 2021, legendary journalist Bob Woodward alleged in his new book “War.”“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 wrote, according to snippets published by CNN.Woodward described one particular moment when Trump shooed a senior aide out of a room at Mar-A-Lago so “he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”While he was in office, Trump, 78, also “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use” at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Woodward.Russia and the US openly exchanged medical equipment like ventilators during the global shutdown — but Putin cautioned Trump to keep the delivery of the Abbott machines a secret, the journalist said.“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said to Trump at the time, according to Woodward.Trump dismissed Putin’s warning, saying “I don’t care.Fine.”“No, no,” Putin cautioned.

“I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.They don’t care about me.”Trump was frequently scrutinized over his relationship with Putin during and after his presidency.In a radio interview in 2022, Trump bragged that he knew the Russian autocrat “very, very well” and called him “a very savvy” guy.Trump aide Jason Miller, however, clammed up when Woodward asked him about the supposed Trump-Putin phone calls.“Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I’m aware of,�...