Let me just reiterate that point: Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, a man who had spent the previous decade working in Ukraine on behalf of a Russian affiliated politician, was a man in deep debt to some seriously dangerous people from that part of the world. Yet he worked for Trump for free and shared highly confidential polling data and other information from the campaign with his long-time Ukrainian second in command, Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence operative. We now know that Kilimnik gave that information to Russian Intelligence.
Yes, Donald Trump certainly may not have known about any of that and originally just wanted to curry favor with Putin because he always admired him and thought he could make a good deal for Trump Tower Moscow. And later he may have continued to curry favor with Putin as president because he a) just really liked the cut of his jib, b) still thought he could cut some deals after he was out of office c) hated the idea that the Russians had helped him get elected so he perversely doubled down on the coziness as a way to defy his critics d) realized once he was in office that the Russians probably had all kinds of dirt on him or e) knew everything all along and just thought it was a perfectly fine way to do business.
I have no idea what was in his mind and how much he knew. He wouldn’t agree to be interviewed. But it’s not impossible that there were elements of all of the above. I think he really did like Putin because he is a macho,macho man and he loves him an authoritarian thug. He clearly thought he had a good deal in his pocket if he fluffed Putin during the 16 election and lost. He’s got the temperament of a schoolyard bully so he no doubt loved to kiss up to Putin even though it made everyone even more suspicious because it proved his power that they couldn’t stop him from doing it. And he no doubt realized just how deep he was in once he had access to all that intelligence but still didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.
The best you can say for Trump in this situation is that he was so massively stupid and incompetent that he hired a man acting on behalf of a Russian Intelligence agent to run his campaign. The worst is that he knew exactly what he was doing. Either way, the fact that he was impeached twice but wasn’t impeached for that still boggles my mind.