Before our scientists developed a vaccine for COVID-19, they developed a test to detect the presence of the virus. This was important for limiting the spread at a time when there no was protection because people who tested positive could isolate until they were no longer infectious. There was an immediate need for these tests and demand initially far outstripped supply. It was at this point that President Trump, who was widely suspected of being secretly in league with Vladimir Putin, and was had endured an impeachment trial during the initial spread of COVID-19 in December 2019 for undermining Ukraine’s defense, reportedly decided to send COVID-19 tests directly to Putin. Obviously, this was done surreptitiously because, as Putin fully realized, the American public would have been outraged.
As the coronavirus tore through the world in 2020, and the United States and other countries confronted a shortage of tests designed to detect the illness, then-President Donald Trump secretly sent coveted tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use.
Putin, petrified of the virus, accepted the supplies but took pains to prevent political fallout — not for him, but for his American counterpart. He cautioned Trump not to reveal that he had dispatched the scarce medical equipment to Moscow, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward.
Putin, according to the book, told Trump, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.”
The Trump campaign denies this happened, but if it did I am sure it will come out. It will be very interesting to learn who hand-delivered the package.
As troubling as this, there’s worse in Bob Woodward’s new book, War.
In early 2024, the former president ordered an aide away from his office at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida, so he could conduct a private phone call with the Russian leader, according to Woodward’s account.
The book does not describe what the two men purportedly discussed, and it quotes a Trump campaign official casting doubt on the supposed contact. But the unnamed Trump aide cited in the book indicated that the GOP standard-bearer may have spoken to Putin as many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021.
It’s not unusual for former presidents to stay in touch with foreign leaders, but it’s highly irregular to have repeated secret phone calls with a foreign adversary at a time of war. It should be noted that these post-presidential contacts took place a time when Trump had illegal possession of some our country’s most sensitive military secrets.
And if you have any doubt the Biden administration was not kept abreast of these Trump-Putin communications, there’s this:
Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence appointed by President Biden, hedged on the question when asked by Mr. Woodward. “I would not purport to be aware of all contacts with Putin,” she told him. “I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done.”
Of course, it’s quite possibly that Haines is completely aware not only that Trump and Putin were talking, but what they were talking about. But if their contacts had been pre-cleared with the administration, she’d say so.
If Trump wins, it’s very clear that he will demand that Ukraine cede the territory Russia has occupied and pledge never to join NATO. In this way, he may achieve a form of peace, but one that is completely to Putin’s satisfaction and gives him a total victory.
Since leaving office, Mr. Trump has continued to praise Mr. Putin. He called the Russian leader a “genius” when Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 and since then has refused to say that Ukraine should win the war. He has criticized American aid to Ukraine and leaned on congressional Republicans not to approve more assistance. He has boasted that if he wins he will negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine within 24 hours and do so even before the inauguration.
Mr. Trump has not explained how he would do that, but possible terms described last month by his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, sounded a lot like what Mr. Putin would want. Mr. Vance said that Russia could keep the Ukrainian territory it has seized by force in violation of international law and receive a “guarantee of neutrality” from Ukraine, which would not be allowed to join NATO.
The suspicion from the beginning of Trump’s campaign in 2015 has been that he’s long been compromised by Russia, perhaps going back all the way to the 1980’s. There is nothing that has happened since to disabuse us of that suspicion.
