This is a simple three part proposition.
1) Trump is so egotistical that he may be tired of being called Putin’s puppet.
2) I doubt Trump wants to win another close election, losing the popular vote again only to win his second term in the electoral college.
3) Therefore I doubt he wants the public to attribute such a win to Russian meddling.
What does Trump have to loose by pretending to take the high ground by becoming a champion for standing up to Russia and publicly and privately demanding that Russia stop their meddling on threat of severe sanctions?
First, consider the possibility, perhaps the likelihood, that Putin has serious kompromat on Trump.
I’ve always believed that all or most of the Steele dossier was true, but regardless Putin has a sophisticated spy apparatus and there’s little doubt Trump has been a subject of their spying for a long time. Trump may not even know what, if anything, Putin has on him He may not care what kompromat Putin has because he has gotten away with so much already. I expect he would figure that he could easily handle any exposure of salacious or embarrassing — even explicit x-rated videos of the pee incident. Assuming there’s such proof it would be the blue dress incident in living color.
He would call accusations, even backed by hard evidence like video recordings or documents, fake news, lies, blame the Democrats, say this proved how hardline he always was on Russia and how it showed how afraid of him Putin is. Secretly he might think that a salacious video proved what a stud he is — unless it proved that he wasn’t (a distinct possibility).
The only other reason I can think of why he’d want to stay on Putin’s good side is that he still wants to open a Trump building in Moscow. If he did this when he was no longer president this would be the ultimate chutzpah. He’d be saying to all his MAGA supporters that he conned them and all he was interested in all along was making himself great.
However, why would he need to do this? He would be beholden to Putin who would be his real landlord. And, let’s face it, there’s no guarantee a Trump tower in Moscow would make any money.
Trump’s biggest political weakness is his belief he can get away with anything. He thinks he can swim with the sharks. The sharks however see him merely as lunch.