BURSTPresident Trump told donors during a closed-door fundraiser last year that he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin the U.S. would bomb “the s‑‑‑ out of” Moscow if the Kremlin moved to invade Ukraine.
“With Putin, I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the s‑‑‑ out of Moscow. I’m telling you, I have no choice,'" Trump, then the GOP presidential nominee, told donors, according to audio published by CNN late Tuesday.
"And then [Putin] goes, like, 'I don’t believe you.' But the truth is, he believed me 10 percent," he added.
Trump claimed he issued a similar threat to China’s President Xi Jinping, saying he would hit Beijing in order to prevent China from potentially invading Taiwan, per the audio.
“He thought I was crazy,” Trump said, referring to Xi, adding that the two world leaders “never had a problem.”
The audio from the fundraisers, which took place in New York and Florida last year, was obtained by journalists Tyler Pager, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey for their book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” which was released this week.
Trump has repeatedly said Putin would not have invaded Ukraine, a military operation that kicked off in late February 2022, if he had defeated former President Biden in 2020. He has also claimed the Palestinian militant group Hamas would not have waged its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, had he been in the Oval Office.
“THE HORRIBLE ATTACK ON ISRAEL, MUCH LIKE THE ATTACK ON UKRAINE, WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF I WERE PRESIDENT – ZERO CHANCE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social a day after Hamas's attack, which sparked the nearly two-year war in the Gaza Strip.
Trump has intensified his criticism of the Russian leader in recent days, saying during a Cabinet meeting earlier Tuesday that “we get a lot of bulls‑‑‑ thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
He also told reporters earlier this week he was "disappointed" with his latest conversation with Putin and acknowledged the two had made "no progress" when it comes to peace talks between the Eastern European countries.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that “we react quite calmly to that," adding, "Trump makes quite harsh statements, judging from the phrases that he has used."
Russia has continued levying attacks on Ukraine, launching a record 728 drones, including more than 300 Shahed drones and 13 missiles, in an overnight attack Wednesday.
The massive assault came after the Trump administration said this week it would resume sending some defense weapons to Ukraine, with the president arguing they are important for the defense of the war-torn country. The reversal came days after the Defense Department halted the deliveries of some air defense missiles and munitions over concerns about U.S. stockpiles being depleted.