I'm guessing the consensus in America is trump loves Putie only because he wants to build a golf course in Moscow...
Not really. It's known he'd like to build a big Trump hotel in Moscow, but that isn't the main attraction. He sucks up to Putin because he loves autocrats. He wants to be one. He admires Pooty's success at that, and probably also envies him because he's so much richer than Trump has ever been.
We all saw how he went on rapturously about Viktor Orhan during the debate, and he's a minor player compared to Putin.