Washington, 9 July 2025:
Audio excerpts from a 2024 campaign fundraiser have circulated online, revealing former President Donald Trump claiming he threatened to “bomb the s**t out of Moscow” if Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. In the recordings, which aired on CNN and were mentioned in The Daily Beast, Trump speaks of having face to face confrontation with Putin personally. He said: If you invade Ukraine I will bomb the s**t out of Moscow, Putin did not believe me but he believed me 10 per cent.”
Trump also said that he gave a similar threat to Xi Jinping, warning him that he threatened to bomb Beijing so as to prevent any military attack on Taiwan. He reasoned that a mere 5-10 per cent possibility of credibility “was sufficient” to deter invasions.
The Pentagon has refused to comment on the tape, and Trump campaign has not reacted. At a Cabinet meeting, in a parallel comment Trump complained about Putin and said he would supply more weapons to Ukraine. When asked about Putin, he replied that he is not happy with him and he is contemplating on helping to issue fresh sanctions against Russia including possible tariffs on countries importing Russian oil and gas.
In spite of the aggressive rhetoric used by Trump, Russia launched the greatest drone assault on Kyiv on 9 July using more than 700 drones and missiles. The escalation was extremely ambivalent: Trump condemned Putin as crazy and assured new supplies of missiles of the Patriot family to Ukraine, but the Kremlin interpreted his threats as insignificant.
Scholars are highlighting the larger picture, where Trump actively politiques tough talking that proves his hardline, but the world analysts consider hoping that such belligerence is being alarming on the rise. In the meantime, Ukraine is demanding urgent response, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urges more sanctions and powerful air defence weaponry, which is necessary to resist the increased Russian attacks.
The recordings reveal how Trump prefers frontal military duplicate of diplomacy, which was a complete turnaround of the serious past policy. Although the allies are glad to see that they can provide renewed aid to Ukraine, the pertinence of threats emitted by Trump is yet to be observed. There is a lot of tension and everybody is looking to see whether this rhetoric will stop the continued aggression or aggravate the conflict further.
