Emmanuel Macron, the dynamic French president, is emerging to be a great opportunist. After setting himself up initially as the Gaullist statesman prepared to speak truth unto American power over climate change and protectionism, he has spied an opening to forge an unlikely alliance with Donald Trump – a chance created by the Brexit and domestic political preoccupations of Theresa May, and the American president’s frosty relationship with Angela Merkel.

Macron’s surprise invitation to Trump to attend the Bastille Day celebrations has lured the travel-weary president back on to Air Force One only three days after he left Europe and the G20 in Hamburg.

Formally their talks are due to focus on Syria and counter-terrorism, but the true value of the meeting lies in the symbolism. For the British it is a lesson that respect and alliances with America need not only be built through submission.

The deeper worry for the UK must be that Trump warms to Macron’s energy, and finds the British, preoccupied by the intricacies of Brexit and led by a “loser” who wasted her parliamentary majority, comparatively less appealing. His state visit to the UK – stalled at least until next year – is in danger of becoming a symbol of an ailing special relationship.

Above all Macron, unlike May, has shown himself to be an operator. At the “family” photo-shoot at the G20, Macron, realising his relatively small frame and slated for a rather undistinguished position in the second row, simply ignored protocol and inserted himself in the front row next to the US president. Trump may be an isolationist, but few politicians want to isolate themselves from him.

Equally, after the Manchester terrorist attack in May, Macron walked from the Élysée to sign a condolences book. A letter of gratitude for the gesture from the British embassy received a handwritten reply from Macron to the effect “it is what should be expected”. Gallic charm and symbolism have their virtues.

By contrast, May’s dutiful commitments to get the job done can seem less appealing.

But the British modus operandi through successive administrations has been to wield influence by offering a credible military partnership and airing any differences with Washington in private. May’s spokespeople say, for instance, she was dismayed at Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate change treaty, but such criticism rarely comes from the prime minister’s own mouth. It may even be one reason that street protests in France are predicted to be limited during Trump’s visit. The French trust their president to relay their concerns direct to Trump.

Macron, from the outset, has shown his independence from the president, upbraiding him in public and in his own words insisting on a tense handshake with Trump at their first meeting in Brussels, saying it was “a moment of truth” – a sign, even at the smallest level, that France was not going to be pushed around.

He promises again at these meetings to tell Trump to his face that he is making an error of historic proportions about climate change. Indeed he relishes these confrontations, exclaiming out loud at one G20 plenary meeting that he kept wishing to put the president right on something but he was rarely in the room.

It was a specific masterstroke to ask Trump, a natural militarist, to commemorate the centenary of the American entry into the first world war and attend Bastille Day commemorations on Friday.

Trump could hardly reject an invitation to celebrate American military prowess, or to view US troops parading along the Champs-Élysées alongside their French compatriots. Standing alongside a dynamic politician, following visits to the army museum, the tomb of Napoleon and to Les Invalides, is probably a lot more rewarding than staying home throwing the remote at CNN in the Oval Office. Dinner at the Eiffel Tower – “avec caviar facon Alain Ducasse” – was an added attraction.

In Macron’s eyes, the visit will be a subtle reminder to the US president of how European and American security has been intertwined for a century, and that its contemporary institutional manifestation – Nato – exists for a reason.

Macron can also point to his commitment to increase defence to 2% of GDP, as well plans for a military venture in the Sahel. His foreign minister has been sent to mediate in the the Gulf, normally a British preserve, and Macron does not hide his interest in helping to solve the Syrian crisis, hinting at least that Bashar al-Assad will have to remain in power for some time, a position shared by the White House. Franco-German defence co-operation is continuing apace.

The UK, by contrast, looks like a country stuck in the pending tray.