system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[LOTR] Was Saruman ever a friendly or nice person?

Saruman was said to have become jealous of Gandalf and hated Radagast even before coming to Middle Earth but Treebeard in The Two Towers says Saruman was polite.

"I wonder now if even then Saruman was not turning to evil ways. But at any rate he used to give no trouble to his neighbours. I used to talk to him. There was a time when he was always walking about my woods. He was polite in those days, always asking my leave (at least when he met me); and always eager to listen."
gpt
He was never nice or friendly, nor was he ever comically evil, he was just himself.  
Just because he was power hungry doesn't mean he couldn't enjoy walking around woods and talking to ents, he was cold and calculating, but also a proper and intelligent man.   
You also forgot to quote one final sentence said by Treebeard- 'I told him many things that he would never have found out by himself(...)' - Saruman was always looking for knowledge and Treebeard was providing it, no reason to get rid of a useful tool.