Is Trump channelling Kissinger?

While Nixon was reviled by the right for it his rapprochement with Communist China helped the US eventually defeat the Soviet Union.

Could Trump be trying to ally with Russia to counterbalance growing Chinese imperialism?

While Russia's imperialism is relatively modest China is moving to take over the entire South China Sea and potentially convert all of Asia into a modern version of Eastern Europe.

Trump knows that Putin knows that China has had its eyes on the Russian far east for a very long time.

Trump also knows that the European countries won't lift a hand to deal with Chinese imperialism, with the exception of Britain.  The countries near China's expansion--Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia--lack the economic and military power necessary to resist Chinese advances. But if Russia reduced technical transfers to China and caused the Chinese to worry about threats to the north it might serve as a counterbalance to Chinese near term imperialism.

Given that an immense amount of international trade flows through the South China Sea it's not in the best interests of the US to allow China to turn it into their version of Lake Michigan.  Given that a military conflict is highly undesirable getting Russia, and perhaps India, on our side could serve to pause Chinese expansionism.

This is precisely the sort of non-aggressive move that leftists say that they like but because they view Russia as more useful as a fall guy to blame for their failure in the 2016 election leftists are willing to hurt the US in order to attack Trump.