For Putin, the troll is making America weak — not "again", but as it has never been since 1900.

For the US to be "strong" is not an unalloyedly good thing, as people in countries from Haiti to Yemen can attest. Dubya weakened the US for the long term by using its power for inexcusable cruelty, and Obama continued this in less blatant ways.

However, if US weakness makes it easier for Chinese tyranny to get stronger, that is a change for the worse.