The president’s visit, during which there will also be a country music concert featuring Toby Keith and a basketball performance by the Harlem Globetrotters, gives Saudi Arabia a chance to showcase its lighter side.

Many Saudis said they admired Mr. Trump, offering a variety of reasons.

“I love him because he’s honest,” said Ahmad Aldubaikhi, 28, adding that he thought Mr. Trump had become president because Americans were tired of politicians who were beholden to those who got them elected. And he liked Mr. Trump’s background as a deal maker.

“Businessmen know how to make things work,” he said.

Mr. Aldubaikhi studied English in California before earning a degree in economics from the University of Miami, where, he said, many Americans knew little about Saudi Arabia. One of his teachers asked if he had an oil pump in his house. Others would hear his name and mention Achmed the Dead Terrorist, a puppet used by the American comedian Jeff Dunham.

But he said that did not bother him, nor did Mr. Trump’s critical comments about Islam.

“He’s not trying to hide his opinion,” he said, suspecting that other American politicians felt the same way but did not express it.

Another rider, Eyad Alrumaih, surmised that Saudis found Mr. Trump’s governing style similar to that of Arab leaders.

Saudi Arabia has institutions and a parliamentary body that are supposed to represent the people, he said, “but at the end of the day, the king says what goes.”

He added: “This is why some of the Americans are against him: ‘He did this, he fired the head of the F.B.I.’ But this is how we do it here.”