According to an excerpt obtained by CNN from Bob Woodward's new book, War, Donald Trump has spoken to Vladimir Putin as many as seven times since leaving office.
Russia has long been an enemy of the United States and the enmity between the two countries has only gotten worse with Vladimir Putin in charge. The vast majority of lawmakers, either Republicans or Democrats, agree that Russia is not our friend.
Donald Trump, though, has been effusive in his praise for the Russian President, at one time taking Putin's word over his own intelligence agency. So it should come as no surprise that Trump has continued his relationship with the Russian authoritarian.
In a series of notes from the book, CNN reports, "Citing a Trump aide, Woodward reports that there have been 'maybe as many as seven' calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021."
The book also notes that Trump and Putin had secret communications during the COVID pandemic and that Trump secretly sent the Russian President Abbott COVID Testing machines for his own personal use.
Woodward quotes Putin as saying, "Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me." When Trump responded that he didn't care, the Russian President countered, "No, no, I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me."