WASHINGTON: Then-president Donald Trump secretly sent Covid test kits to Vladimir Putin despite a US shortage during the pandemic, and spoke multiple times with the Russian leader after leaving office, says an explosive new book by Bob Woodward.

The upcoming opus, “War,” also chronicles some of President Joe Biden’s own acknowledged missteps and his struggle to prevent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, including exasperation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over futile efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire.

In excerpts published Tuesday by The Washington Post, where he is an associate editor, Woodward lays out damning details and actions by Trump, who the writer says has retained a personal relationship with Putin even as Trump campaigns for another presidential term and the Russian president conducts a war against Ukraine, a US ally.

With the coronavirus ravaging the world in 2020, Trump sent a batch of test kits to his counterpart in Moscow. Putin accepted the supplies but sought to avoid political fallout for Trump, urging that he not reveal the dispatch of medical equipment, this books says.

According to Woodward, Putin told Trump: “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.”

Woodward also cites an unnamed Trump aide in the book who indicated the Republican flagbearer may have spoken to Putin up to seven times since leaving the White House in 2021.