It’s always been obvious. Trump’s been a Russian operative–or a useful idiot for them–from the get-go. Remember 2016, when he openly requested that Putin interfere with our elections. Since then, it’s been a lovefest.
There's a reason adjudicated fraud, sexual abuser, defamer, and 88 felonies charged Trump cozies up to Putin. Putin helped Trump win his first term, and now Trump owes him. It was never about 'America First', it's always been about satisfying the dictator he's indebted to.
It all started in 1987 when the KGB paid for his trip to Moscow. In 2008 when Dmitry Rybolovlev bought his palm beach property for twice what trump had just paid for it…(and I have no doubt there are even earlier data points for when putin began grooming trump)…imagine how easy it must have been for a KGB agent to dupe him.