Retaliating is the correct move from other countries, groveling to this kind of leader will just lead to getting bullied more in the future. And unlike with Russia you can almost count on him losing power if you push back.
What if Trump wants and expect some kind of coup attempt ("losing power"), a kind of Reichstag fire, in order to consolidate it?
Trump's action appear self-destructive when you consider them in the context of normalcy, but if you consider that he intends to catapult the US outside normalcy, these actions might make sense.
But I do think he could, and would, try to make a "Reichstag fire" over any kind of mass protest moment. During the BLM protests, he wanted to send the military in to take over Democratic-led cities. He toyed with declaring martial law if protests related to the 2020 election became violent. Any whiff of clashes with counterprotestors, or with police, or even property vandalism... any of that would be just the excuse he's looking for. The question isn't whether he'd try to use the excuse to grab more power, it's whether the people around him would push back like last term, or cave in and let him do it this time.