Former US President Donald Trump apparently sent several Covid-19 test kits to Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his personal use, in 2020, when the world was grappling with the deadly pandemic. According to the excerpts of an upcoming book by Bob Woodward, the kits that Trump supplied were scarce in the United States and were not easily available, a favour that Putin requested to keep a secret. Further, the two interacted with each other over phone calls on as many as seven occasions since Trump left office in 2021.
The excerpts of the book were revealed in separate reports with CNN and the Washington Post, which quoted Woodward and mentioned that Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”
“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” the book quotes Putin as telling Trump, as the Russian President attempted to not make the “gift” he received from Trump public.
While Trump’s first reaction was “I don’t care” and “Fine” to this request, Putin insisted, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me,” the excerpt stated.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Kamala Harris reacted to the reports of Trump supplying Covid tests to Putin and said Donald Trump openly admires dictators and authoritarians.
“Donald Trump — he openly admires dictators and authoritarians. He has said he wants to be a dictator on Day One if he were elected again as President. He gets played by these guys. He admires so-called strongmen and he gets played because they flatter him or offer him favour,” Harris told Stephen Colbert on Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show.
“I ask everyone here and everyone who is watching: Do you remember what those days were like? You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?” Harris asked, referring to the pandemic days.
“The commander-in-chief of the United States of America must stand strong and defend the principles that we hold dear. We should stand with our allies. We should strengthen the alliances that we have, such as NATO, which is the strongest military alliance the world has ever seen. We must stand with our friend Ukraine where Russia is attempting to change borders by force,” Harris said on Trump’s connect with Russia.
“And this man is giving Covid test kits to Vladimir Putin? Think about what this means on top of him sending love letters to Kim Jong Un. He thinks, well, that’s his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friend,” she said.
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