Trump has made some very close-relationship-type comments about Putin. I put it that way rather than saying he likes Putin or he actually has a close relationship with Putin because I believe a lot of this is quite complex.
Trump is not trying to keep is friends close and his enemies closer, as the proverb goes. That means he’s not being friendly with Putin because he actually hates Putin and wants to shut him down on one way or another. Trump made the comments that he wants to get in good with Putin so that he can make deals, one of which includes reducing Russia’s nuclear stockpile. I think this is a load of crap, and I think Trump knows it. I think he just people to like him. He’s so afraid of being unpopular that he’ll say anything.
I think Trump has a dangerous combination of thinking he can control literally everyone, including world leaders, and getting closer to Putin because he wants to use Putin as a way to corner China by neutralizing Russia’s alliance with China by packaging such a great deal that Trump could do things that Putin would actually support even though it seriously harms Russia. Perhaps Trump thinks he could lift all sanctions on Russia in exchange for high tariffs on goods from China without Putin subsidizing China in other ways or without Putin supporting China in a trade war. Certainly, Putin could aggravate NATO in response to a trade war with China, which might encourage Trump to back off the trade war. Russia could also run more icebreaker ships through the Arctic north of them, only around June-August at this point, to show Trump that there is a way to get goods from China to Europe without leaving the Russia-China alliance. That would allow gridlock in the South China Sea via Chinese warships because there’s an alternate trade route so there’s no worry if the $5 trillion dollars of trade through the South China Sea has to be rerouted north of Russia. That way, in concert with China’s railroad plan from China to London, they could ship all goods to Europe by boat, rail, and plane without the South China Sea at all. With Russia threatening to invade Europe whenever it wants to threaten or whenever it wants to actually invade, what leg does Trump have to stand on? He already said he won’t defend NATO countries because he thinks they don’t deserve it because they don’t pay what we pay to be a member.
Trump has a lot of thinking to do on this issue, and I think his idea of cozying up to Russia is a bad one. It’s an ingenious plan, but I don’t think he knows what he’s doing. Honestly, I think Putin is going to walk all over us. He’s already proven he can take down our news channels with hacks that show RT News whenever he wants to. He could do that 24/7 and declare to all U.S. citizens that he is at war with us. Of course, he’d likely express his sincere apologies that some other country wants to go to war with us and offer an alliance with Russia to minimize the damage, all while Russia is invading along with other countries. Don’t forget Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela has no money, supports communism, purchases military planes and other arms directly from China and lives only about 4.5 hours from Washington D.C. by commercial aircraft. His military could fly to D.C. in 2 hours or an ICBM could be here in under an hour. Of course, all that needs to happen is a threat. No one needs to launch anything. I think Trump will get excited at first because, again, he thinks he can control and win everything, but I think, in short, he better be right. Otherwise, we all know what happens next.