After the combined persuasion and flattery of Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron brought out a somewhat tamer and more jovial version of the US president, there were modest hopes that the Ukrainian president’s visit to Washington might be more productive than feared – even if there was no sign that they had succeeded in tempting Mr Trump towards the security assurances so desperately needed.
It is hard to see how the curtailed visit – Mr Trump said that Mr Zelenskyy “can come back when he is ready for peace” – could have gone worse.
Like Mr Macron, Sir Keir enjoyed a jovial reception from Mr Trump.
And so on Friday he put the boot into a democratically elected leader fighting to defend his country against invasion – “You don’t have the cards,” he told Mr Zelenskyy – yet has said he believes that Mr Putin can be trusted to keep promises.
(His chummy meeting with Mr Macron on Monday did not stop Mr Trump from subsequently claiming that the EU was “formed to screw the United States”.)
