This week marks exactly a year since Theresa May boarded a plane to Washington with a smile on her face.
After being the tenth world leader to be called by the newly installed President Trump, it was seen as a diplomatic coup to be the first into the Oval Office to meet him face to face, and walk hand in hand outside the White House.
The offer of a state visit, just a week after one of the most controversial candidates ever was sworn in as president, was seen as a necessary step to get the trans-Atlantic relationship off to the best start.
Mr Trump took to calling the British MP “my Maggie” and expressing his interest in a “full monty”, state visit, which meant the carriage ride down the Mall rather than a group of unemployed steelworkers taking their trousers off.
But the US president is a man who wants to be loved, and when it became clear that much of Britain did not love the idea of welcoming him to these shores, he put the visit on hold: “When I know I’m going to get a better reception, I’ll come and not before,” he told Mrs May last year.
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The not-so-special relationship has had some ups and downs since, from the migrant ban that risked affecting Britons to the president telling May to “focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom” after he retweeted Britain First videos.
Mr Trump had been expected to come to London next month to open the new US embassy but pulled out, claiming to be unhappy about the property deal and the building’s “off location” (which is one thing that embassy staff are in full agreement on).
However, I understand that preparations are continuing for a low-key visit this year. One option would be for him to meet Mrs May at Chequers and have tea with the Queen at Windsor to keep to a minimum the time spent in London, where protests are likely to be largest.
Boris Johnson began building the case for the visit yesterday in a Sunday Telegraph article in which he played down the significance of “what should be a routine event in the diplomatic calendar”.
“In 2016 the people of the US not only elected Donald Trump; they bought £100 billion of British goods and services,” the foreign secretary said, putting the economic case for being pro-American.
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While the article was full of typically Johnsonesque language – he told Labour to “end their Spartist agitations” adding: “Chuck it, Corbyn” – it was seen by No 10 and is part of a co-ordinated effort to get relations back on track.
Mr Johnson will meet Rex Tillerson, his US counterpart, today for a series of meetings and a working lunch, which are expected to be dominated by Yemen and Syria, where Mr Johnson praised the Trump White House for a “new willingness to get stuck in”.
Mrs May herself will then hope to get relations back on track when she meets Mr Trump at a snow-covered Davos later this week (provided the president makes the trip – the US government shutdown means he might stay in Washington).
There appear to be real fears in government that a post-Brexit trade deal is threatened by the deterioration in Mr Trump’s attitude to Britain.
Just don’t expect her to hold his hand, no matter how slippery the Davos steps are.