Read: Don’t expect Trump’s Europe trip to go smoothly

At a D-Day ceremony above the Normandy beaches Thursday, Trump traded hugs with French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the world leaders who has invested heavily in the idea that the 45th president can be won over with pomp and ceremony. The two presidents entered together on a red carpet and later, with their wives, watched a display of French air power from a viewing stand next to the English Channel. In one maneuver, French planes spewed red, white, and blue smoke as Trump watched appreciatively.

In the summer of 2017, Macron hosted his American counterpart for a two-day visit to France centered on a Bastille Day military parade that made a deep impression on Trump. He came away determined to hold a similar event in Washington, D.C., only eventually calling it off the following year, citing the expense.

Still, Trump has been hostile toward France’s leadership. He has ridiculed Macron for suggesting that Europe needs its own army as a bulwark against Russia, and said that France instead needs to spend more on the NATO alliance. The French, Trump tweeted, “were starting to learn German in Paris” before U.S. forces arrived to save their country in the two world wars.

Britain has had a similar experience. British officialdom prepared carefully for the three-day visit that ended Wednesday with a D-Day ceremony in the English harbor town of Portsmouth. They wanted Trump to leave feeling lionized. “There was an understanding between Downing Street and Buckingham Palace that this is a really big deal and we need to put our best foot forward—that this is a man who would really appreciate this and needs it to be special,” a British official told me, requesting anonymity to speak more freely about internal discussions. “We’re very aware that he enjoys the pomp and ceremony and signs of respect for him and his office.”

Read: Using D-Day to remind Trump who his real allies are

At Buckingham Palace on Monday night, more members of the royal family took part in the procession into the banquet than in previous state visits, the British official said. Trump’s adult children also snapped up invitations for a dinner that left them exultant. Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and a senior White House aide, stood with Prince Harry, the queen’s grandson, during an exhibition at the palace.

“The younger royals were there to sort of pull the younger Trump royals into a relationship that will continue after this,” says Kathleen Burk, a specialist in Anglo-American relations at University College London.

Trump was gracious toward May during his stay, though he couldn’t resist needling her in an interview he gave to British newspapers right before the trip, commenting that she hadn’t been tough enough when bargaining with the European Union on the matter of Brexit.