Why does the 'America First' president keep putting Russia first?

At the heart of the Trump administration resides “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”: What is it with President Trump and Russia? Why does the “America First” president so often put Russia first?

That question has surfaced yet again after the New York Times first reported that a Russian military intelligence unit had paid bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Post reported that those bounties had resulted in the deaths of Americans.

A normal president would have canceled his golf outing and made clear that there would be hell to pay if the reports are true. Not Trump. Instead, he lashed out at the news media, denying that the intelligence community had briefed him on its findings, as the Times and other publications had reported. Unfortunately, it’s hard to credit anything said by a president who has lied to or misled the public more than 19,000 times.

The U.S. government reportedly had this information since January, and the National Security Council even debated what to do about it. During that time, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at least five times and issued a joint declaration celebrating the “Spirit of the Elbe” in honor of the meeting between U.S. and Soviet troops in Germany on April 25, 1945. Trump also invited Putin back to the Group of Seven and gushed that “we have this great friendship.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/29/america-first-president-keeps-putting-russia-first/