The Putin/Trump friendship is largely invented by the media. For example when Putin supposedly called Trump 'brilliant' he used a Russian term that means 'bright colorful personality' not intelligent. Our media knows this but ran with the illusion of Putin admiring Trump because it serves domestic political talking points. Trump's whole platform of America First(tm) populist rhetoric would be detrimental to any agenda Russia has.
It seems to me that embarassing leaks are best distracted away from the political news cycle by manufacturing a sexy story about Russian interference instead of trying to spin the content of the leaks themselves.
It seems to me that embarassing leaks are best distracted away from the political news cycle by manufacturing a sexy story about Russian interference instead of trying to spin the content of the leaks themselves.