It's a conspiracy theory, but it seems like a halfway plausible one:
Donald Trump really does look like a Russian puppet from this angle!
I don't imagine this all comes just out of Putin's influence. Too much going on, and it's been brewing for too long. And I suspect Trump has too many variegated crooks backing him to disentangle all their separate influences. But hey, if Putin saw a chance like this, why wouldn't he leap at it?