Newly released audio from a 2024 campaign fundraiser captures President Donald Trump boasting about issuing blunt, aggressive warnings to America’s top two adversaries — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping — in an effort to deter invasions of Ukraine and Taiwan during his first term.
Trump claimed he told Putin that if Russia invaded Ukraine, he would “bomb the sh*t out of Moscow.” He said he made a similar threat to Xi, vowing to bomb Beijing if China moved on Taiwan. According to Trump, the threats didn’t need to be fully believed — just enough to plant doubt.
“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 told a group of his wealthiest New York donors. “So Putin goes, ‘I don’t believe you.’ He said, ‘No way.’ And I said, ‘Way.’”
“But the truth is, he believed me 10%,” Trump added.
He went on to describe a similar conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying Xi thought he was insane:
“He said, ‘Beijing?! You’re gonna bomb—’ and I said, ‘I have no choice,’” Trump recalled. “And he didn’t believe me either. He said 10%. And 10% is all you need. In fact, 5% would have been OK too.”
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The Kremlin responded to the leaked audio with calculated ambiguity, stating it could neither confirm nor deny the report’s authenticity.
The release comes amid heightened tensions in Eastern Europe. Russia just launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine since the war began — a massive overnight offensive involving 728 drones and 13 missiles. The attack targeted several high-density regions and was widely seen as an attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses. (RELATED: NATO Scrambles Air Assets After Russia’s Largest Drone Assault On Ukraine)
Just prior, Trump reinstated U.S. military aid to Ukraine, overturning a recent pause ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid concerns over declining U.S. weapons stockpiles.
The renewed aid package will focus on defensive capabilities — particularly air defense missiles critical to repelling Russia’s intensified drone and missile attacks.
The leaked audio offers rare insight into Trump’s behind-the-scenes diplomatic strategy: a blend of brute-force rhetoric and personal diplomacy aimed at keeping authoritarian adversaries in check. He framed his approach as both menacing and effective — a calculated mix of unpredictability and charm that, in his view, helped prevent war on two fronts. (RELATED: Russia Could Help China Invade Taiwan By Attacking NATO)
Whether that strategy still carries weight, however, is far from certain. While the United States currently retains escalation supremacy — the ability to outmatch any adversary at every level of military conflict, including nuclear — that dominance is increasingly being tested, particularly by China, and is no longer taken for granted in strategic circles.
As Trump reasserts himself on the world stage, Putin appears increasingly disinterested in rapprochement — or in Trump’s offer to help restore Russia’s standing with the West.
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