CNN has released audio recordings in which former U.S. President Donald Trump is heard threatening to bomb Moscow and Beijing. The recordings, reportedly made during private fundraising events in 2024, reveal Trump’s harsh rhetoric toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Details from the Recordings
In one part of the audio, Trump claimed he warned Putin directly about invading Ukraine.
“If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the s**t out of Moscow,” Trump said. He added that Putin “didn’t believe you” at first but later “believed me 10%,” according to the recording obtained by CNN.
Trump issued a similar threat to Xi Jinping regarding Taiwan.
“I said, ‘If you go into Taiwan, I’m gonna bomb the s**t out of Beijing.’ He thought I was crazy… but he believed me 10%,” Trump stated in the same recording.
Trump described these threats as part of a deterrence strategy, emphasizing that “ten percent is all you need” to make an adversary hesitate.
The audio recordings were reportedly captured at private fundraising events during Trump’s 2024 campaign activities. They were obtained by CNN through authors of a forthcoming book titled 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America.
Trump had previously referenced having “strong conversations” with both Putin and Xi but had not publicly disclosed the specific language or nature of these threats.
At the time of publication, neither party had commented on the audio recordings published by CNN.
