Trump is the very definition of "useful idiot." Putin holds the upper hand. Trump is subservient, because he can't win an election without Russian interference.
From Congressman Eric Swalwell's (D-CA) site:
https://swalwell.house.gov/issues/russia-2016-us-election-interference
On October 7, 2016, the seventeen agencies of our intelligence community concluded with high confidence that Russia was meddling in our elections through hacking, leaks, and the dissemination of fake news.
On January 6, 2017, the office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified report on Russia’s actions and intentions in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The report concluded that:
These attacks were ordered by President Putin;
Russia’s goals were to undermine faith in our democracy, to harm Secretary Clinton’s chances of winning, and to help President Trump’s election chances; and
President Putin and the Russian Government favored President Trump.
In addition to covert intelligence operations that supplied a constant stream of material to WikiLeaks, the Russian government worked to achieve these goals by using government agencies, state-funded media outlets, and paid social media trolls. For example, Facebook has acknowledged that "it has become a battleground for governments seeking to manipulate public opinion in other countries." Using these tools, Russia launched a dangerous fake news campaign intended to make it difficult for Americans to tell the difference between accurate reporting and blatant lies about both presidential candidates and about our own country.
But the most disturbing finding: Russia intends to do this again.
Russia will use the lessons learned from their 2016 attack on our democracy to carry out future attacks on both our democracy and other sovereign nations worldwide. It's clear that President Putin intends to do this again. Republican Senator John McCain has warned that Russia will continue to use cyberattacks “as a part of Vladimir Putin’s ambition to regain Russian prominence and dominance in some parts of the world.” The American people cannot ignore Russia’s actions against us, because doing so will leave our democracy vulnerable to the next attack.
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https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/11/why-does-trump-talk-about-putin-like-hes-his-boss.html
Why Does Trump Talk About Putin Like Putin’s His Boss?
New York Magazine
By Jonathan Chait, 11/13/2017
We have by now grown so inured to the sight of Donald Trump treating Vladimir Putin like a trustworthy source it was only moderately shocking when he dismissed his own country’s intelligence analysts as “political hacks” while refusing to consider the possibility that Russia’s dictator might have political interests of his own. Still, Trump made another comment in passing that deserves more attention. Speaking of Putin, and expressing his fear that continued investigation into Russian election interference would upset relations between the two countries, Trump said, “I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”
Consider how unusual a statement this is, especially coming from Trump. Trump is assuming that Putin is a sensitive soul who might be personally wounded by unflattering portrayals in the American media. He is further asserting that Putin’s emotional distress might cause him to lash out at the United States or harm its foreign-policy interests in some way. Trump is speaking to his country like a cowering mother warning her children not to upset their father.
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