U.S. President Donald Trump told a private meeting with major donors last year that he once tried to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine by threatening to “bomb the hell out of Moscow.” CNN reported this, citing audio recordings that turned up in the possession of journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf.

"I told Putin, 'If you go into Ukraine, I will bomb the hell out of Moscow.' I'm telling you, I'll have no choice,'" Trump said at one of his closed-door campaign fundraisers. He said Putin didn't believe him completely at the time, but “believed him at least 10 percent.”

In the same conversation, Trump said he had similarly allegedly “put Chinese President Xi Jinping in his place” by threatening to bomb Beijing if China attacked Taiwan. “He thought I was crazy,” Trump said of Xi Jinping. - But we never had a problem."

The revelations came during a series of private events in New York and Florida in 2024, when Trump has been aggressively promoting his campaign and enlisting the support of wealthy donors. In his speeches, he not only talked about tough foreign policy rhetoric, but also promised to “expel” students involved in anti-government protests and criticized the U.S. welfare system, saying that “people on welfare will always vote Democrat.”