Ex-U.S. President Donald Trump secretly sent Covid-19 tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin amid a domestic shortage at the height of the pandemic in 2020, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing its associate editor Bob Woodward’s upcoming book.
Putin, a known germophobe who was widely said to have taken extra precautionary measures including extended self-isolation during the pandemic, reportedly accepted Trump’s tests but urged him to avoid going public about them.
“I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me,” Putin was quoted as saying to Trump at the time.
It seems far more likely to me that Putin requested them. There was a brief period where America had a monopoly on anti-COVID medical tech.
The story as reported isn’t clear on whose idea it was. For Trump to spontaneously have a brainstorm to help another human being, even if it’s Putin, doesn’t really check out for me.