Mr. Trump did mention during the campaign that the debt has massively ballooned in the last eight years. One rule of life is that things that can't go on forever don't. So the U.S. may not be capable of financing its social programs on top of the current level of defence spending, and Mr. Trump knows that. Faith in the U.S. dollar, which is the basis for much of world trade, is holding things up, for now, but it is entirely possible that this will end on Mr. Trump's watch. Under the circumstances, looking for allies instead of enemies makes sense, and so he's keen on getting the Russians to co-opearate in the struggle against militant terrorists of heavenly faith and aspiration, and getting other countries to share the defence burden, e.g. Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, etc. When you get right down to brass tacks, stability of the currency is the overriding concern, and short of ending social programs, no end is in sight for that. Trade is not the issue.