Trump 'called Putin seven times since leaving office'

Donald Trump has reportedly spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin as many as seven times since leaving the White House.

- ALEX WOODWARD

A new book from journalist Bob Woodward includes extensive reporting about president Joe Biden’s “blunt, profanity-laced” behind-the-scenes responses to Putin’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza.

Mr Woodward’s War – his fourth book since Mr Trump won in 2016, excerpts of which were published by CNN – also contains previously unreported details about the former president’s relationship with the authoritarian leader, including a moment at Mar-a-Lago where he told a senior aide to leave the room so they could have a “private phone call”.

“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,” Mr Woodward writes.

Mr Woodward reports that he asked chief Trump aide Jason Miller whether Mr Trump and Mr Putin have spoken since leaving the White House in January 2021, to which Mr Miller replied: “Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I’m aware of.” “I have not heard that they’re talking, so I’d push back on that,” Mr Miller added, according to Mr Woodward.