He was cordial, but he was candid.
Sitting next to his best British buddy, David Lammy, US vice president JD Vance politely but firmly spelt out how the two countries are deeply divided on the Middle East and free speech.
As the pair met on Friday, first came the cordial part of the VP’s remarks.
He began by stressing the “very special relationship between our two countries”. Flattery always goes down well in meetings between UK and US leaders.
British politicians love to hear American politicians talk about “the special relationship”. The cynical view, however, is that it’s something the UK cares much more about than the US.
But after the pleasantries came the candid part, as the splits on the big issues were laid bare in the vice president’s answers to questions from reporters.
First, he was questioned about the UK’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine.
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“Do you think that’s a bad decision?” he was asked. In a court of law, that would be called a leading question.
Diplomatically, Vance replied: “We have no plans to recognise a Palestinian state. I don’t know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state, given the lack of a functional government there.”
But that was as far as he went.
He could have said the US believes it’s a terrible decision by the UK because it is Israel that has to make concessions, not Hamas, and it won’t help the humanitarian crisis or free the hostages.
But he didn’t.
Instead, very on-message, the vice president talked about President Trump’s goals in the Middle East and Gaza, which he said were very simple.
“Number one, we want to make it so that Hamas cannot attack innocent Israeli civilians ever again and we think that has to come through the eradication of Hamas,” he said.
“Second, the president has been very moved by these terrible images of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. So we want to make sure that we solve that problem.”
But then came acknowledgment of the US-UK split. “We may have some disagreements about how exactly to accomplish that goal, and we’ll talk about that today.”
Then came the question about free speech in the UK. “Do you bring any kind of message to the foreign secretary today on that subject?” he was asked.
As President Trump frequently claims, Vance said it was all Joe Biden’s fault, for “censoring rather than engaging with a diverse array of opinions”.
He went on: “Obviously, I’ve raised some criticism, concerns about our friends on this side of the Atlantic.
“But the thing that I’d say to the people of England or anybody else, to David, is many of the things that I worry most about were happening in the United States from 2020 to 2024 I just don’t want other countries to follow us down what I think was a very dark path under the Biden administration.”
At that point, clearly not wanting to be dragged into further controversy about free speech by repeating his previous criticism, he attempted to bring the impromptu news conference to an end, declaring that Mr Lammy had “a lot of things to do”.
It wasn’t very subtle, but it worked, apart from a half-hearted and unsuccessful attempt to tease an answer out of Mr Lammy about the split on Palestine. The foreign secretary wasn’t falling for that one, however.
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And let’s face it, Vance was hardly going to denounce UK policy in the opulent Chevening drawing room while he and his family are being lavishly entertained by his buddy David over the weekend.
But the vice president skilfully made clear where the two countries disagree. And left no one in any doubt about that.
