Bob Woodward’s “War,” set to be released next week, is the author and
Washington Post associate editor’s fourth book since Donald Trump’s upset
victory in 2016.
The new book opens the aperture to reveal how a years-long
political contest between Trump and President Joe Biden — and now Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee — has
unfolded against the backdrop of cascading global crisis, from the coronavirus pandemic, to Russia’s full-scale invasion
of Ukraine, to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran-backed proxies
in the Middle East. At the book’s end, Woodward concludes that Biden, mistakes
notwithstanding, has exhibited “steady and purposeful leadership,” while Trump
has displayed recklessness and self-interest making him, in Woodward’s
estimation, “unfit to lead the country.”
That determination is based on a series of key revelations.
Below are some of the book’s main findings. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign
issued a statement attacking the book and saying, “None of these made-up
stories by Bob Woodward are true.”
1. Trump sent American-made coronavirus tests to Putin
When Trump was president in 2020, he sent coveted tests for
the disease to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a crippling shortage in
the United States and around the world.
As the book explains, Putin was petrified of contracting the
deadly illness. He accepted the supplies but cautioned Trump not to reveal that
he had shared them, concerned for the political fallout that the U.S. president
would suffer.
“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said
to Trump, according to Woodward.
Woodward reports that Trump’s reply was: “I don’t care.
Fine.”
“War” also suggests that Trump and Putin may have spoken as
many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021. On one occasion,
this year, Trump sent an unnamed aide away from his office at his Mar-a-Lago
Club so he could conduct a private phone call with Putin, according to the
book.
A campaign official, Jason Miller, was evasive when Woodward
asked him about the contact, eventually offering, “I have not heard that
they’re talking, so I’d push back on that.”
2. Biden’s profanity-laced outbursts about Putin and
Netanyahu
“War” portrays Biden as a careful and deliberate commander in
chief, but combustible in private about intractable foreign leaders —
especially Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden called Putin the “epitome of evil” and remarked to his
advisers, about his Russian counterpart, “That f---ing Putin.”
The intelligence community believed racial animus — namely
the idea that Ukrainians were a lesser people than the Russians — was a
significant factor in Putin’s designs on Ukraine, as “War” explains. The book
quotes Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, saying of Putin,
“He is one of the most racist leaders that we have.”
Biden’s anger toward Netanyahu boiled over in the spring of
2024, Woodward reports, as Biden concluded that the Israeli prime minister’s
interest was not actually in defeating Hamas but in protecting himself. “That
son of a b----, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad f---ing guy!” Biden
reportedly told advisers.
3. Harris’s two-track approach with Netanyahu
Harris delivered high-profile remarks after a July face-to-face meeting
with Netanyahu, shortly after she became the presumptive Democratic nominee for
president. She seemed to separate herself from Biden’s approach to
Israel’s war in Gaza by speaking forcefully about the costs of
the military campaign and pledging to “not be silent” about Palestinian
suffering.
Her public tone surprised, and infuriated, Netanyahu because
it marked a contrast with her more amicable approach during the private
conversation the two had shared, Woodward reports. The book quotes the Israeli
ambassador in Washington, Michael Herzog, saying: “She wants to be tough in
public. But she wasn’t as tough privately.”
The episode is one of several in the book about Harris, who
appears as a loyal No. 2 to Biden but hardly influential in major foreign
policy decisions.
4. Frantic de-escalation in the face of possible Russian
nuclear use
Woodward details some of the stunning intelligence
capabilities that allowed Washington to foresee Russian plans for an all-out
war against Ukraine in early 2022, including a human source inside the Kremlin.
This insight, however, got the Biden administration only so
far as it sought to foreclose Russia’s nuclear option. In the fall of 2022,
that option seemed like a live one, as U.S. intelligence agencies reported that
Putin was seriously weighing use of a tactical nuclear weapon — at one point,
assessing the likelihood at 50 percent.
An especially frantic quest to bring Moscow back from the
brink came in October of that year, when Russia appeared to be laying the
groundwork for escalation by accusing Ukraine of preparing to detonate a dirty bomb. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
flatly denied Russia’s accusations in a phone call with the Kremlin’s defense
minister, Sergei Shoigu. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser,
instructed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s team to summon the
International Atomic Energy Agency to absolve themselves immediately. And Biden
called out Russia’s apparent scheme publicly while privately leaning on Chinese
President Xi Jinping to emphasize to Putin the dire consequences of nuclear
use.
5. The pervasive influence of the Saudi crown prince
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known by his initials
MBS, is not a major figure in the book but looms large at critical junctures,
with key assessments of him delivered by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Mohammed, currently the prime minister of Saudi Arabia,
matters greatly as the de facto ruler of the Arab world’s wealthiest country.
He cultivated close ties to Trump, who made Riyadh his first foreign stop as
president. So, too, he has been crucial to matters of significant interest to
Biden, especially oil supplies and the prospects of normalized relations with Israel.
Woodward summarized Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s
perception of the crown prince this way: “MBS was nothing more than a spoiled
child.”
One of the Saudi royal’s important interlocutors has been
Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.). The Republican senator kept Biden’s aides apprised
of Mohammed’s perspective on the possible normalization of relations between
Saudi Arabia and Israel, according to Woodward, and also kept the gulf leader
in communication with Trump. During a March visit to Saudi Arabia recounted in
the book, Graham proposes to the crown prince that they call the
Republican presidential candidate. Mohammed proceeds to conduct the
conversation over speakerphone.
On an earlier trip, Graham had asked the crown prince to
contact Sullivan, so the senator could inform them both about a discussion with
Netanyahu.
“Hey, I’m here with Lindsey,” the Saudi royal reportedly
announced to Sullivan over the phone.
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