President Donald Trump told campaign donors in 2024 that he had warned Russian President Vladimir Putin he would “bomb the s— out of Moscow” if Russia invaded Ukraine, according to newly surfaced audio obtained by CNN.
The explosive comments were reportedly made during a donor meeting on May 14, 2024, at New York’s Pierre Hotel and are detailed in the upcoming book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America by journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf.
“With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the s— out of Moscow,’” Trump told attendees, according to the audio. “I’m telling you I have no choice.” Trump added that Putin initially dismissed the threat, but “he believed me 10%.”
The president, now in his second term after returning to office in 2025, also claimed he issued a similar warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping to deter an invasion of Taiwan. “He thought I was crazy,” Trump said, adding, “but we never had a problem.”
NBC News also confirmed the authenticity of the audio provided by the book’s authors. While Trump did not specify when these threats were allegedly made, it is important to note that Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, during Joe Biden’s administration.
Asked about the report, a White House spokeswoman responded to CNBC by emphasizing Trump’s record. “As President Trump has said time and again, Russia never dared invade Ukraine when he was in office. It happened only when Biden was in office,” she stated.
“Thanks to this President’s leadership, America is once again the leader of the free world, and peace through strength is restored,” she continued. “President Trump won on an America First agenda, and he is working hard to implement the mandate the American people gave him.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered a cautious response to the claims. “I cannot confirm or deny this, even if I wanted to,” he told Reuters, adding, “Whether it is fake or not, we do not know either. There is a lot of fake news these days.”
CNN noted that the audio highlights how Trump often spoke more bluntly in private campaign events as he worked to court high-dollar donors.
Despite previously praising Putin, Trump has recently taken a more critical tone. During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, he said, “He’s killing a lot of people … his soldiers and their soldiers, mostly, and it’s now up to 7,000 a week.”