Russia has responded cautiously to newly leaked audio tapes from 2024 fundraisers in which U.S. President Donald Trump claimed he threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with bombing Moscow if Russia invaded Ukraine.
According to CNN, the audio tapes were from fundraisers in New York and Florida, which were later obtained by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf and aired by CNN.
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The audio, captured during private fundraising events in New York and Florida in 2024, reveals Trump boasting about his aggressive foreign policy stance.
According to CNN, Trump recounted a conversation with Putin, stating:
“With Putin, I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m gonna bomb the sh*t out of Moscow. I’m telling you, I have no choice,’” Trump said.
“And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ He said, ‘No way.’ And I said, ‘Way.’”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov expressed skepticism about the authenticity of the recordings, suggesting they could be fake and noting that no such conversations occurred when Trump was not president.
“The fact is that there were no telephone conversations then. After all, we are talking, as far as I understand, about the period when Trump was not yet the president of the United States.”
Peskov added, “Whether this is fake or not, we also do not know. There are a lot of fakes now. Often, there are many more fakes than true information.” He further remarked, “I cannot confirm or deny this, even if I wanted to.”
The audio also includes Trump claiming he issued a similar threat to Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding a potential invasion of Taiwan.
“I’m with President Xi of China. I said the same thing to him. I said, you know, ‘If you go into Taiwan, I’m gonna bomb the sh*t out of Beijing.’ He thought I was crazy. He said, ‘Beijing?! You’re gonna bomb-’ I said, ‘I have no choice. I got to bomb you. We’re gonna bomb Bei-’ and he didn’t believe me either.”
The leaked audio comes amid Trump’s growing frustration with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which he has repeatedly claimed would not have occurred under his presidency.
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During a cabinet meeting on July 8, 2025, Trump expressed discontent with Putin, stating:
“We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless. I’m not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now. Because he’s killing a lot of people. And a lot of them are his soldiers.”
However, it is not clear when and in which format these alleged conversations took place with the leaders.