“I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow.” Trump told donors he threatened Putin on the eve of his invasion of Ukraine

The US President Donald Trump told partners that he once tried to deter Russian leader Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine by threatening to bomb Moscow in response to this aggression.

Trump told donors about this during a private meeting in 2024, a recording obtained by CNN.

"I told Putin, ʼIf you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow. I have no choice.ʼ And heʼs like, ʼI donʼt believe you.ʼ But he believed me 10%," the American president said.

Trump later added that he had issued a similar warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding a possible attack on Taiwan — saying that Washington would bomb Beijing in response.

“He thought I was crazy,” Donald Trump says of Xi. “But we never had a problem.”

The statements came as Trump tried to convince the audience to support his second term as president. The audio was recorded during fundraisers in New York and Florida in 2024. The file was obtained by journalists Josh Dosi, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, some of which they used in their new book, “2024”. The recordings have not been previously released. The Trump campaign declined to comment on their content.

According to CNN, the recordings show a less reserved side of the American president, which he revealed behind closed doors to wealthy donors. During one fundraising event, Trump boasted that he had forced wealthy allies to donate tens of millions of dollars to his campaign.

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