> Completely destroying the US is not ideal for him

Nah.

He wants to be a dictator that extracts wealth from it's citizens.

He has a benefit from following the communist path to extract wealth. Make lives miserable, so they are living off the state ( eg. standing in line for bread), so they can't protest.

Putin is not Trump's friend, but Trump idolises him for extracting enormous wealth from Russia, censoring news ( propaganda) and imprisoning political opponents, ...

Just check the "firehose of falsehoods" ( a Russian propaganda method), it will explain a lot about Trump.