President Zelenskyy of Ukraine met US President Donald Trump in the White House, initially to finalise the detail on a much anticipated mineral-security deal, and the whole thing went about as badly as it is possible to go.

By now, most of you have probably seen the two-minute clip of the pair arguing in front of the press and the subsequent outpouring of vague yet sincere support from European and Western leaders on social media, but the hostilities did not come out of nowhere.