You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Russia Attacks Ukraine as New Audio Reveals Candidate Trump Told Putin He’d Bomb Moscow

HeadlineJul 10, 2025

Russia launched a barrage of hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine’s capital overnight, killing at least two people and wounding 16 others. The attack sparked fires across Kyiv with damage to residences, vehicles and warehouses. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the bombardment “a clear escalation of terror” by Moscow.

Meanwhile, CNN has revealed that Donald Trump told a private gathering of wealthy donors last year that he once sought to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine by threatening to “bomb the [blank] out of Moscow” — though Trump used an expletive. The revelation came in audiotapes recorded at fundraisers in New York and Florida.

President Donald Trump: “With Putin I said, 'If you go into Ukraine, I'm going to bomb the shit out of Moscow. I’m telling you I have no choice.’”

Trump claimed he made a similar threat to Chinese President Xi Jinping over a potential invasion of Taiwan, saying the U.S. was prepared to bomb Beijing.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top