“I told Putin, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I will bomb Moscow to the bone.’ I told him I had no choice,” Trump said at a 2024 fundraiser, according to an audio recording. “And then Putin said, ‘I don’t trust you.’ But he trusted me 100 percent,” Trump added.

Trump later said he had conveyed a similar warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping about a possible invasion of Taiwan, saying the US would bomb Beijing in response.

"He thought I was crazy," Trump said of Xi Jinping, after noting that"we never had a problem."

These statements by Trump were recorded on audio tapes during 2024 fundraisers in New York and Florida. They were later obtained by journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, some of whom detailed them in their new book. The audio tapes had not previously been released. Trump's team declined to comment on the content of the recordings.

The audio shows a more revealing side of Trump that he has tended to reveal behind closed doors to please wealthy supporters. He spoke not only about his sometimes aggressive foreign policy strategy, but also about deporting protesting students and his belief that"welfare people" will always vote Democratic, CNN reports.

Trump has referred to his conversations with Putin and Xi Jinping, claiming that if he had been president instead of Joe Biden, he would have prevented the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza - a claim he repeats now as he works to end both wars.

On Tuesday, Trump again expressed frustration with Putin's opposition to the peace deal.

"I am not happy with V. Putin," he said during a government meeting.