The Biden White House hasn’t forgotten how Johnson cozied up to former President Donald Trump, who embraced Brexit. Nor can it ignore the British prime minister’s history of eye-opening comments about U.S. political figures linked to Biden. He once questioned whether former President Barack Obama’s part-Kenyan ancestry predisposed him to a “dislike of the British Empire” and compared former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.”

Biden, meanwhile, has called Johnson “kind of a physical and emotional clone” of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Since taking office, Biden has ignored Downing Street’s advice to change course on the Afghanistan withdrawal, and has been critical of his British counterpart over the Brexit impact on Northern Ireland.

But through it all Biden has thrown numerous bones to Johnson, inviting the U.K. into a select defense pact, offering a big helping hand ahead of a crucial British climate summit, and going the extra mile by inviting the prime minister to the White House.