Bob Woodward's War: the explosive Trump revelations

A new book from Watergate's veteran journalist Bob Woodward has made a series of shock claims about former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

"War", which will be published on Tuesday, three weeks before the White House election, "resurrects unsettling questions" about Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Foreign Policy, and the "largely unresolved mystery" of his "business and financial ties to Russia".

The Putin claims

One of the "modern expectations of the office" of US president is that Woodward will "write at least one book about your administration", said The New York Times.

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He has penned more than 20 books on US politics and "no one can beat" him at "getting the story of the White House from the inside", said Politico. "People tell Woodward things they shouldn't."

In this latest book, Woodward claims that when Trump was still president in 2020, he "secretly" sent Putin "a bunch" of Covid test machines for his personal use, at a time when Covid tests were thin on the ground.

He also claims that the two leaders have spoken by phone as many as seven times since Trump left office in 2021, even as the former president was pressing Republicans to block military aid to Ukraine to fight Moscow's forces. The report comes from a single aide, who described being ordered out of Trump’s office at his Mar-a-Lago estate in early 2024 so that he could take a call with Putin.

Elsewhere in the book, Trump's ally, Lindsey Graham, says that visiting Mar-a-Lago "is a little bit like going to North Korea", because "everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in".

Behind the scenes

The former president has "wasted no time" in "lashing out" at Woodward over the "damning revelations", said Raw Story. Trump's campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said it was a "trash book" that deserves to be "used as toilet tissue".

The book forms a "study in contrasts" and of "just how dysfunctional the US political system has become", said Foreign Policy. As Joe Biden was confronting Putin, it seems his predecessor was "secretly talking to him and opposing US military aid to Ukraine".

With all the fuss about the Trump passages, it's easy to forget that the book is largely focused on Joe Biden. It actually offers "a remarkable look behind the scenes" of the Democrat's reign, said CNN.

With Woodward describing Trump as "unfit to lead the country" and Biden as "an example of steady and purposeful leadership", said The New York Times, the author's judgements sound "authoritative", but also "wishful".