Muslims are seen as terrorism-supporters by the same folks who love the Saudis.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Ordinary Muslims, that is, regardless of what country they're from or are citizens of.

What do you make of this seeming contradiction?

[DavidB.]

I don't think anyone "loves" the Saudis except for literal oil tycoons...

[darklordoftech]

Saudi Arabia seems to be popular with Republican elites, but not with either party's voters.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

In the case of the Trump administration in particular, my theory is as thus:

The Trump campaign, as you might expect from a Republican led affair, had the standard planks opposing Iran and its proxies, but seemed to incorporate a lot more themes of a Civilization Clash. This was part of a broader trend in the West; and the Sauds start to panic at the idea of losing their key patrons. They had hoped that the passing of Obama (who they were at loggerheads with) would give them a bit of leeway, but Trump's strangeness put them on the defensive, especially as he seemed to lean on the idea that the US foreign establishment had funded terror through Gulf proxies. So the Sauds quickly got him under his thumb by essentially apportioning all blame for the terror business on its arrogant and ambitious neighbour Qatar. This is partially based on reality. The breed of Islamism funded by Saudi Arabia is ultra-conservative, deferential to authority and even sort of apolitical (although not always), while Qatar has often dabbled in populist affairs that mix political Islam with appeals to social justice and taking down the corrupt order. This is especially useful, as Qatar, apparantly fancying themselves some sort of Switzerland by playing off both sides, had fostered links with Iran; meaning that the Sauds could cast themselves as the heroic fighter of the Qatar-Saudi axis of terror (which doesn't really make much sense in the context of, say, Syria, but that's geopolitics)

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

The people you are thinking of aren't any more afraid of the ordinary Muslim on the street than the Saudi regime itself is.

[dead0man]

I don't think anyone "loves" the Saudis except for literal oil tycoons...

yeah, who are these people PR is talking about?  Can we get some examples?

[Indy Texas]

I don't think anyone "loves" the Saudis except for literal oil tycoons...

yeah, who are these people PR is talking about?  Can we get some examples?

The people trying to sell them nuclear technology and who have conveniently pretended that unfortunate "incident" with the bone saw last year is just water under the bridge.

[Kingpoleon]

Many Americans assume, naturally, that our closest Middle Eastern ally is the most moderate in the region. Sadly, such sensible foreign policy is far beyond the capabilities and ethics of those who have spent the last forty years making our foreign policy decisions and alliances.

[dead0man]

Many Americans assume, naturally, that our closest Middle Eastern ally is the most moderate in the region.

there are people that think S.Arabia is our closest ME ally?  We let Egypt make our tanks, Turkey is in NATO (though clearly they've slipped a lot in the last decade), Israel!  The American people (that are paying a little attention) like Kurds and Georgians more than Arabs, even if the govt doesn't always follow our lead.  Hell, one could make arguments for Iraq and Jordan...maybe not very good arguments.