TRUMP: ‘IF I DID, IT’S A SMART THING’: As soon as excerpts from Bob Woodward’s latest book, War, were released to selected media outlets last week, the Trump campaign gave a version of his standard blanket denial, denouncing the book as “made-up stories” by a “sleazebag who has lost it mentally” and “belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or used as toilet tissue.” But as was the case with Woodward’s three previous books about former President Donald Trump, the anecdotes based on extensive interviews with insiders are largely proving to be accurate.
When Trump was asked about sending COVID-19 test machines to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2020, Trump told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl the story is “false.” Ditto for Woodward’s reporting that Trump has been in regular contact with Putin since leaving office, speaking to him as many as seven times by phone. “That is false,” Trump said.
