Trump has called Putin ‘at least seven times’ since leaving the White House… and sent a bizarre gift that he demanded he keep secret

Former President Donald Trump has kept in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office — making more than a handful of phone conversations with him, according to allegations in Bob Woodward’s new book.

Woodward describes the extent of the contacts and attributes them to a Trump aide in his new book War, CNN reported.

There were “perhaps as many as seven” after Trump left office in 2021, Woodward writes. And the timeline extends beyond Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.

The intervening period has seen brutal missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns, and a resulting flood of US and allied sanctions against Russia as well as Putin and members of his inner circle.

Trump has repeatedly stated during his campaign rallies that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he were still in office.

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Trump also sent Putin a secret stash of Abbott covid testing machines “for his personal use,” Woodward reports.

It came at a time of solidarity gestures as the pandemic spread, but Putin reportedly wanted to keep it quiet.

Call a friend? According to Bob Woodward’s new book, former President Donald Trump has made no fewer than seven phone calls to Vladimir Putin since leaving office. Trump has repeatedly vouched for his good relations with the Russian dictator

“Please don’t tell anyone you sent this to me,” Putin told Trump, according to Woodward. “I don’t care,” Trump told him. ‘Fine.’

“I don’t want you to tell anyone because people will be angry with you, not with me,” Putin told him. WashingtonPost reported.

Woodward interviewed Trump for his latest book, but Trump publicly attacked the author.

His campaign released a statement labeling Woodward a “truly demented and disturbed man” whose “made-up stories” are false.

Putin has maintained an extraordinary level of isolation during the outbreak of the pandemic, and some experts believe that his lack of outside contact may have contributed to his decision to launch and an invasion that left thousands of Russian and Ukrainian dead has cost.

According to the Post, a phone call came in early 2024, which also resulted in the book being obtained. It reported that Trump ordered an aide away from his office at Mar-a-Lago for the meeting with Putin.

The report comes days after the New York Times reported on Trump’s meeting with Putin in Hamburg in 2017, their first in-person meeting.

Putin, whose forces had already taken over Crimea, told Trump that Ukraine was “a corrupt, made-up country.” Trump told him he was considering sending weapons to Ukraine, the Times said.

Take a test: Putin advised Trump not to tell people he sent him Covid tests early in the pandemic because people might get mad at him

Trump vouched for his relationship with Putin during his September meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

‘What do you think?’ Trump asked him, during a meeting that apparently upset former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “We have work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine,” Tillerson told aides as the meeting ended.

Woodward’s book paints a contrasting picture of President Joe Biden, whose administration has sent billions in advanced weapons to Kiev.

“Damn Putin,” Biden told advisers after the invitation. ‘Putin is bad. We are dealing with the height of evil,” he said.

Trump stood side by side with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last month and said he would end the bloody conflict. He has criticized U.S. funding for Ukraine, and his efforts to get Zelensky to investigate the Bidens were featured in Trump’s first impeachment.

“I also have, as you know, a very good relationship with President Putin and I think that if we win [the election] we’re going to fix it very quickly,” Trump said.