Donald Trump reportedly threatened to “bomb the s*** out of Moscow” in a bid to deter Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine.
The US President made the comments at a private gathering of wealthy donors in 2024, according to the audio obtained by CNN.
During the presidential campaign, Trump had claimed that he would be able to end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours.
But he said at the fundraiser: “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.
“And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But he believed me 10%.”
Trump also made similar claims over a conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping regarding Taiwan, claiming he would bomb Beijing if he invaded.
“He thought I was crazy,” Trump said of Xi, before noting that “we never had a problem”.
The reported warnings to Putin and Xi were said to have taken place at fundraisers in New York and Florida which have been detailed in a new book 2024 by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf.
The recordings have not previously been aired and the Trump campaign declined to comment.
Republican Trump referenced his conversations with Putin and Xi while arguing that he would have staved off conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza if he were president instead of Democrat predecessor Joe Biden.
The claim is often repeated even though he now struggles to end both wars.
On Tuesday, Trump again expressed frustration with Putin’s resistance to a peace deal, complaining that the Russian leader was throwing “a lot of bulls***” at the US.
“I’m not happy with Putin,” he said during a Cabinet meeting adding Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine is “killing a lot of people” on both sides. “I’m very unhappy with them.”
Meanwhile, Trump has said Washington will send more weapons to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops after an announcement last week that the US would halt some shipments of critical arms to Kyiv.
