Donald Trump Campaign Calls Bob Woodward ‘Deranged’ Over New Book’s Details

Donald Trump’s campaign has slammed claims made by journalist Bob Woodward in a new book that reveals alleged interactions between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after he left office.
The book, titled War, was obtained by CNN ahead of its release on October 15. It alleges that Trump and Putin have had as many as seven phone calls since early 2021.
Woodward also wrote about President Joe Biden’s profanity-laden comments about the Russian leader, as well as regrets he had about one of his own appointees.
Reacting to the revelations Tuesday morning, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek that Woodward’s book belonged in the “bargain bin.”
“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,” Cheung said in an emailed statement. “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 went on: “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.”
Newsweek reached out via email to the White House and Woodward’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, for comment on Tuesday morning.
Among the other allegations in the book is that a secret shipment from Trump was sent to Putin during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Trump reportedly “sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.” Russia’s president asked his U.S. counterpart to keep the shipment quiet.
“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin allegedly said to Trump, who replied: “I don’t care. Fine.”
“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
Woodward also wrote that the former president had become more erratic, citing conversations with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who urged his ally to move on from his views that the 2020 election was stolen.
“Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea,” Graham told Woodward. “Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in.”
Woodward’s book also claims Biden referred to the Russian president as “that f*****g Putin” shortly after his invasion of Ukraine. He also allegedly referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “son of a b****” and a “bad f*****g guy.”
Biden’s intelligence officials reportedly had knowledge of Russia’s plans to invade in late 2021, and the president confronted Putin twice that December, Woodward said. Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed a warning from Vice President Kamala Harris as late as February 2022.
Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, on Israel and the subsequent outbreak of war in Gaza, Woodward said there was a roller-coaster relationship between Biden and Netanyahu.
“What’s your strategy, man?” Biden reportedly asked Netanyahu during an April phone call, with Netanyahu replying that his forces had to go to Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” Biden responded. After Israeli forces later moved into Rafah, the president privately called him a “f*****g liar.”
“Bibi, what the f***?” Biden yelled at Netanyahu in July, Woodward wrote, after an Israeli airstrike killed a top Hezbollah leader, along with three civilians.
“You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Biden said.
Woodward also outlines struggles Biden has faced at home, including frustrations with former President Barack Obama’s handling of Putin and his regrets over appointing Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“Should never have picked Garland,” Biden reportedly told an associate, speaking about the federal prosecution of his son Hunter. “This is never going to f*****g go away.”
Update 10/8/24, 11:53 a.m. ET: This story was updated with more information and a new headline that does not say the book is now in stores. It will be published October 15.