As Keir Starmer told reporters on the plane over that the security guarantees around any Ukraine peace deal "had to be sufficient to deter Putin from coming again" (and that requires a US military backstop in the minds of the Europeans), President Trump told reporters he was "not going to make security guarantees beyond very much".
The prime minister's two goals when he meets President Trump on Thursday are to help persuade him to put in place US security guarantees for Ukraine to deter Russian aggression post any peace deal, and dissuade President Trump from imposing tariffs on the UK.
Starmer goes to Washington full of praise of President Trump - a leader he said on the plane over that he trusts - and a concrete pledge to put British troops into a peacekeeping force and lift UK defence spending, a key Trump ask of all NATO allies.
From the PM's trip to Ukraine in January when he all but confirmed to Sky News that he was prepared to put British boots on the ground in a peacekeeping force, to his language around Europe stepping up at NATO in February, the European summit last week in Paris and then this week's big commitment to accelerate the UK's defence spending, the Number 10 team have been building up to this meeting, step by step.
He then assiduously stuck to an agreed script, weighing each answer carefully as he swerved a number of questions on Ukraine and trade by saying he "wasn't going to get ahead of discussions", as he praised President Trump, referenced the special relationship as often as he could and insisted again the UK would not pick between the US and Europe.
