Donald Trump’s presidential campaign unleashed an astonishing attack on author and journalist Bob Woodward, calling the Watergate sleuth ‘deranged’ following the first trickle of bombshell revelations from his book.
Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung hurled the insults in a statement filled with personal invective against Woodward, 81, after one passage in Woodward’s new book War had Trump speaking with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at least seven times since leaving office.
‘None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ said Cheung.
He went on to rip the journalist whose reporting helped lead to Richard Nixon’s resignation, and whose string of books on D.C. institutions have managed to wrangle the cooperation of a litany of top sources – including Trump himself in the past.
‘Woodward is an angry, little man and is clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made previously,’ Cheung said.
‘President Trump gave him absolutely no access for this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or used as toilet tissue. Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he’s slow, lethargic, incompetent and overall a boring person with no personality,’ he said.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign labeled journalist and author Bob Woodward ‘demented and deranged’ as excerpts from his new book came to light
Trump cooperated with Woodward’s last book, and the author released ‘The Trump Tapes’ with his on-record conversations.
The blasts came on a day when Trump touted his wife Melania’s book on his Truth Social network as an ideal stocking stuffer. ‘Her book is out Nationally, and for sale EVERYWHERE. It is really great! She was a fantastic First Lady, and shares that experience, and much more. She’s also a really good writer, as she showed at the Republican National Convention with her letter, that turned out to be a sensational highlight. Perfect for Christmas. Get it NOW, and ENJOY!’ Trump wrote.
Among the revelations in War is that Trump has kept in regular touch with Putin since leaving office – holding more than a handful of phone calls with him, according to the book.
Woodward describes the extent of the contacts and attributes them to a Trump aide in his new book War, CNN reported.
There were ‘maybe as many as seven’ after Trump left office in 2021, Woodward writes. And the timeline extends until after Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.
The intervening period has featured brutal missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and town, and a resulting flood of U.S. and allied sanctions against Russia as well as Putin and members of his circle.
Trump has stated repeatedly at his campaign events that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if he had still been in office.
During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Trump also sent Putin a secret stash of Abbott covid test machines ‘for jasa pendirian pt dan cv jakarta selatan, his personal use,’ Woodward reports.
It came at a time of gestures of solidarity as the pandemic spread, but Putin reportedly wanted to keep it hush-hush.
Bob Woodward has made a career out of scoring insider interviews for his deep dive books, often relying on information on ‘deep background’
Phone a friend? Former President Donald Trump has held as many as seven phone calls with Vladimir Putin since leaving office, according to Bob Woodward’s new book. Trump has repeatedly vouched for his good relations with the Russian dictator
‘Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,’ Putin told Trump, according to Woodward. ‘I don’t care,’ Trump told him. ‘Fine.’
‘I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me,’ Putin told him, the Washington Post reported.
Woodward interviewed Trump for his last book, but Trump publicly attacked the author.
Trump sued Woodward following the release of his 2020 book, Rage, seeking nearly $50 million for publishing tapes of their interviews. Woodward interviewed Trump 19 times for the book, then released ‘The Trump Tapes’ in 2020.
His legal team has blasted the effort to claw back royalties from the works.
The attack follows revelations in Woodward’s new book
‘This long tradition of candid reporting depends on an axiomatic principle–reflected in copyright law’s prohibition on private ownership of government works–that the words a sitting President speaks about the discharge of his office belong to the People,’ his lawyers wrote in a filing last year. Last August, a Pensacola, Florida judge ruled that the copyright case must be transferred to New York.
Trump’s team argued that Woodward and his publisher, Simon & Schuster, ‘blatantly and unlawfully usurped President Trump’s copyright interests.’
Putin kept an extraordinary level of isolation during during the onset of the pandemic, and some experts believe his being cut off from outside contact may have contributed to his decision to launch and invasion that has cost thousands of Russian and Ukrainian deaths.
One call came in early 2024, according to the Post, which also obtained the book. It reported Trump ordered an aide away from his Mar-a-Lago office for the call with Putin.
The report comes days after the New York Times reported on Trump’s 2017 meeting with Putin in Hamburg, their first face-to-face encounter.
Putin, whose forces had already seized Crimea, told Trump Ukraine ‘was a corrupt, fabricated country.’ Trump told him was considering sending weapons to Ukraine, according to the Times.
Taking a test: Putin advised Trump not to tell people he had sent Covid tests to him 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, in a meeting that apparently rattled former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. ‘We’ve got work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine,’ Tillerson told aides when the meeting concluded.
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Woodward’s book paints a contrasting picture of President Joe Biden, whose administration has steered billions in sophisticated weaponry to Kiev.
‘That f****** Putin,’ Biden told advisors following the inviation. ‘Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil,’ he said.
Trump last month stood side by side with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and said he would bring an end to the bloody conflict. He has criticized U.S. funding for Ukraine, and his efforts to get Zelensky to probe the Bidens was featured in Trump’s first impeachment.
‘I also have a very good relationship as you know with President Putin and I think if we win [the election] we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,’ Trump said.
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