As I crouched between the cameras, determined to catch Donald Trump's eye and ask a question, I listened to a president seeking to be magnanimous. Remember, Trump can and does do warmth when he wants to, as well as acerbic. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, a mayor a matter of months ago, sat next to the most powerful man in the world.
Put like that, it sounds believable when he said in advance he was looking forward to the meeting, but there must have been a jab of nerves too. Burnham did look a little nervous as us reporters trooped into the room, but then, for the most part, the compliments flowed from the president. The original plan was for journalists to be invited in at the beginning of the meeting, perhaps just minutes after the men had first met.
Instead, we were kept waiting while the private talks took place, which came with the upside that they had more to say about each other and what they had discussed than would otherwise have been the case. Burnham knew, the world knows, how explosive these rolling, free wheeling, live on camera encounters with Trump can go. It is rollercoaster without a harness stuff.
Having got myself into the president's eyeline, I waited for the last syllable of Burnham's final word at the end of his opening remarks and I filled the brief silence with a question. Was the prime minister a man you can do business with, I asked the president, given your political differences? "I do, I think he's a natural business person.
We've had a lot of discussions even before this meeting. We've spoken to each other numerous times on the phone. Yeah, I think so, I think so.
He understands what he has to do." The warmth was self evident. Perhaps the Downing Street nerves will have eased a bit. But how long would the questions keep going?
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