Trump doesn’t “dissociate himself from the influence of Putin’s Russia, but seems to be very happy to adopt a very similar attitude to him” — Trump doesn’t want it to appear that he needed or needs anyone’s help to win elections. He promotes the myth that he is so popular that he needs no one’s help to win.

His governing style should come as no surprise. He openly admires dictators in other countries like Putin, Xi and Erdogan. Of course he would style his rule like theirs.