Donald Trump's first foreign trip as U.S. presidentwill not be in neighboring Canada or Mexicolike all other American presidents since Ronald Reagan.Trump will go first to Saudi Arabia,where he will be welcomed by King Salman.The Saudi leader is organizing a greeting committeeof as many as 20 other heads of staterepresenting a large percentage of the world's 1.5 billion Sunni Muslims.Robert Satloff is head of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.He thinks the trip will show how Trump's policies on the Middle Eastare different from those of former president Barack Obama."The most useful way to look at President Trump's strategyis to see him as the anti-Obama," Satloff says.Satloff also says "Obama made a purposeful effort to talk directly to the people.His first trip to the Middle East included speechesnot to national assemblies and parliamentsbut to universities where he could talk over the heads of the leaders.He wanted to create a new balance in the Arab world,characterized by speaking to people rather than leaders.Trump wants to undo all that."Trump's aides believe his visit to Riyadhis a chance for him to improve relations with Muslims.During the 2016 election campaign,Trump made critical comments about Muslims.And he began his presidency with an announcement of a temporary banon Muslim refugees and visas for people from several Muslim-majority countries.Human rights groups are not surprised that Trumphas chosen to meet with the Saudi king."It's certainly a consistent choice, given the parade of dictatorswho've been welcomed at the White House,"said Andrea Presow of Human Rights Watch.This week, Trump meets at the White House with several autocratic Muslim leaders,including Egypt's Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.Richard LeBaron of the Atlantic Council was the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait.He says "expectations are low.The travel ban didn't come as a shock to Muslims.They had built it into their expectations about Trump."National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told reportersthat the president would tell Sunni leaders to fight radical Islam.Trump has called it "an ideology that uses a perverted interpretation of religionto justify crimes against all humanity."McMaster said the president "will encourage our Arab and Muslim partnersto take bold, new steps to promote peace and to confront those,from ISIS to al Qaida to Iran to the Assad regime,who perpetuate (the) chaos and violence that has inflicted so much sufferingthroughout the Muslim world and beyond."That message is likely to be welcomed by Sunni Muslim leaders.They worried about Obama's attempts to improve relations with Iran,a country they blame for much of the trouble in the Middle East.Ali Shihabi is a Saudi Arabian citizen and the head of the Arabia Institute,a Washington-based research organization.He said Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia"sends a message that he understands that America's Muslim alliesare the first line of defense in the fight against terrorism."Trump begins his nine-day overseas trip on Friday.Besides Riyadh, the trip will include stops in Jerusalem, the Vatican, Brussels and Sicily.McMaster called this a "historic trip."He said, "No president has ever visited the homelandsand holy sites of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths all on one trip."Trump's trip, however, has been overshadowedby continuing questions on Trump's sharing of intelligence on ISIS with Russian visitorsand his recent firing of FBI Director James Comey.