The lead-up to Thursday’s meeting in the White House between Presidents Trump and Zelensky was a mixture of high tension and weary familiarity.

On the one hand there was the ever-present risk that a face-to-face meeting between the two men could be derailed badly, as we saw in February this year with the ambush of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

On the other hand, all of the other main elements of the meeting seemed to follow a script that we have seen before multiple times.

Whether under Biden or Trump, America’s handling of requests by Ukraine for specific weapon systems that they think will help their war effort follow a set pattern. Delay and concern over “escalation” that would upset Moscow are the dominant features of the US response. But with the advent of Trump, there is the add

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