[A]s it turns out his hosts were probably delighted by his words (much as they might snicker at its presumptuousness), since Trump's whole take was to identify with the Saudi regime's belief that it perfectly represents "true" Islam, as opposed to, well, the entire Shia tradition, and those unruly Sunni insurgencies that threaten the stability Riyadh most values. [...]

By any reasonable standard, from its founding Saudi Arabia has always been and remains the chief exporter and financier of "radical Islam," in the sense of subsidizing massive missionary activity aimed at promoting the rigid, quasi-totalitarian Wahhabi sect. As a New York Times report on Saudi influence last year put it:

There is a broad consensus that the Saudi ideological juggernaut has disrupted local Islamic traditions in dozens of countries -- the result of lavish spending on religious outreach for half a century, estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. The result has been amplified by guest workers, many from South Asia, who spend years in Saudi Arabia and bring Saudi ways home with them. In many countries, Wahhabist preaching has encouraged a harshly judgmental religion, contributing to majority support in some polls in Egypt, Pakistan and other countries for stoning for adultery and execution for anyone trying to leave Islam.

But it's also clear that the Saudi regime wants to combat all sorts of politically inconvenient fallout from the rapid spread of the very brand of exclusivist Sunni Islam it and its associated charities and foundations try to replicate around the world. So in practice what you have is an effort to distinguish "radical Islam" from "terrorism." The ultimate product is the Orwellian idea of a Riyadh-based "Global Center For Combating Extremist Ideology," which Trump helped open over the weekend. With all due respect to the Saudi regime's authentic (if sometimes ambivalent or even double-dealing) hostility towards terrorist activity, this is a bit like opening a democracy think-tank in Moscow--which for all we know could be a Trump project down the road.