7 Craziest Details to Emerge from New Bob Woodward Book About Biden, Trump and Putin

AP Photo/Alex Brandon; Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP; AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Bob Woodward’s new book War outlined several startling revelations about what went on behind the scenes as the world’s most contentious foreign conflicts unfolded. CNN obtained an advance copy of the book, which comes out October 15, and shared some of the most shocking highlights.

1. Biden called Netanyahu a “fucking liar”

Woodward described the communications between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, and Biden was apparently increasingly frustrated over Netanyahu’s lack of a strategy for retaliation:

“What’s your strategy, man?” Biden asked Netanyahu during an April phone call, Woodward reports.

“We have to go into Rafah,” Netanyahu said.

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” Biden responded.

As allies rushed to Israel’s side in its war against Hamas, Biden warned Netanyahu to “take the win” and “do nothing.” Israel then launched a strike against Iran, and Biden adjusted the goalposts. But it was Israel going into Rafah that set Biden off:

“He’s a fucking liar,” Biden said privately of Netanyahu, after Israel went into Rafah, Woodward writes.

“Bibi, what the fuck?” Biden yelled at Netanyahu in July after an Israeli airstrike killed a top Hezbollah military commander and three civilians in Beirut, according to Woodward.

2. U.S. intelligence knew about Putin’s plan to invade Ukraine months ahead of time — Zelenskyy didn’t believe it was true

In October 2021, the Biden administration received an influx of valuable intelligence that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine. Woodward wrote: “It was an astonishing intelligence coup from the crown jewels of US intelligence, including a human source inside the Kremlin,” adding: “It was as if they had secretly entered the enemy commander’s tent and were hunched over the maps, examining the number and movement of brigades and the entire planned sequence on the multifront invasion.”

When CIA Director Bill Burns told Biden that this was what Putin was planning, Biden said: “This would be so crazy.”

Biden confronted Putin with the intelligence twice in December 2021, first in a video conference and then in what Woodward describes as a “hot 50-minute call” that became so heated that at one point that Putin ‘raised the risk of nuclear war in a threatening way.”

Biden responded by reminding Putin that “it’s impossible to win” a nuclear war.

Despite repeated warnings, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the idea that Putin would actually invade, even after Vice President Kamala Harris told him during a February 2022 meeting at the Munich Security Conference that an invasion was imminent.

3. There was a 50 percent chance that Russia would use nuclear weapons

Months after the February 2022 invasion, U.S. intelligence developed a “deeply unnerving assessment” of Putin, who was now being seen as so desperate to win that he could resort to deploying nuclear weapons:

Based on the alarming new intelligence reports, the White House believed there was a 50% chance Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon — a striking assessment that had skyrocketed up from 5% and then 10%, Woodward reports.

“On all channels, get on the line with the Russians,” Biden instructed his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. “Tell them what we will do in response,” he said, according to Woodward.

The book recounts a tense phone call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart in October 2022.

“If you did this, all the restraints that we have been operating under in Ukraine would be reconsidered,” Austin said to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Woodward. “This would isolate Russia on the world stage to a degree you Russians cannot fully appreciate.”

“I don’t take kindly to being threatened,” Shoigu responded.

“Mr. Minister,” Austin said, according to Woodward, “I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.”

4. Trump stayed in touch with Putin after leaving office

Former President Donald Trump had a very different relationship with Putin — the two apparently engaged in private calls after Trump left office:

In one scene, Woodward recounts a moment at Mar-a-Lago where Trump tells a senior aide to leave the room so “he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

“According to Trump’s aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021,” Woodward writes.

Woodward asked Trump aide Jason Miller whether Trump and Putin had spoken since he left the White House. “Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I’m aware of,” Miller told Woodward.

5. Lindsey Graham compared Mar-a-Lago to North Korea

Trump critic-turned-ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had an alarming way to describe a visit he made to Mar-a-Lago:

“Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea,” Graham said. “Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in.”

Also alarming was how Graham described Trump to Woodward on the record:

As Trump framed his presidential campaign around fear, Woodward writes that Graham said of the former president: “Trump is becoming more erratic. These court cases. I think they would rattle anybody.”

6. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Has a Burner Phone Just For Trump

Graham was also part of a noteworthy anecdote about Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. During a visit to Saudi Arabia in March, Graham apparently said to MBS: “Hey, let’s call Trump!”

What happened next offers a fascinating window into how the Saudi leader operates and communicates with various world leaders and government officials. Woodward writes that bin Salman had an aide bring over a bag with about 50 burner phones, pulling out one labeled “TRUMP 45.”

Among the others in the bag, Woodward writes, was a burner labeled “JAKE SULLIVAN.”

7. Biden’s call with George W. Bush after the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal

Woodward recounted several gripes Biden had with those in the very exclusive club of former presidents. Among his complaints was with former President Barack Obama, whom he believed “never took Putin seriously.”

Ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden complained that Obama didn’t do enough to stop Putin in 2014, when the Russian leader invaded Crimea.

“They fucked up in 2014,” Biden said to a friend, according to Woodward. “That’s why we are here. We fucked it up. Barack never took Putin seriously.”

Biden added, “We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue!” Biden was angry: “Well, I’m revoking his fucking license!”

Biden may be frustrated with Obama, but when it came to Trump, Woodward wrote that Biden referred to him in private as “that fucking asshole.”

But it was another former president, George W. Bush, who called Biden after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan:

“Oh boy, I can understand what you’re going through,” Bush said to Biden. “I got fucked by my intel people, too,” Woodward writes.

War by Bob Woodward hits shelves on October 15.