President Donald Trump gestures next to Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a joint press conference at Chequers near Aylesbury, England, Thursday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

AYLESBURY, England (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he was “tremendously thankful” for the pageantry and splendor lavished on him during his second state visit to the United Kingdom as he wrapped up a trip that largely sidestepped major public disagreements over difficult trade and geopolitical issues.

The mutual warmth, along with Trump’s abundance of kind words bestowed on the host country, suggested that an all-out charm offensive by the royal family and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had its desired effect, even though there was a notable lack of progress on some key matters.

Trump and Starmer signed what both sides hailed as a historic agreement on science and technology, and they held a roundtable with global business leaders where they suggested the deal could mean significant job gains. Among the topics tackled mostly in private talks between Trump and Starmer were the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and U.S. tariff rates on steel imported from Britain.

“The bond between our countries is like no other anywhere in the world,” Trump said at a news conference at Chequers, the 16th-century manor house northwest of London that serves as a rural retreat for British leaders. The U.S. and U.K., the American president said, have “done more good for the planet than any other nation in history.”

Joining in the bonhomie, Starmer said that “time and time again, it is British and American men and women, side by side, changing the path of history and turning it towards our values, towards freedom, democracy and the rule of law.”

The very end of the trip saw Trump’s helicopter carrying him from Chequers to the airport at Stansted for his flight to Washington make an unscheduled landing at a local airfield due to what the White House called a “minor hydraulic issue.” No one was injured, and a backup chopper completed the journey.

The Trump-Starmer mutual admiration followed King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s feting of Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Windsor Castle on Wednesday with all the pomp the monarchy can muster, including the biggest military honor guard ever assembled for a state visit.

Trump called the king and queen “two fantastic people” and said he was” “tremendously thankful” and “grateful beyond words” for the hospitality.

Even high-profile points of dissent, such as Britain’s impending move to recognize a Palestinian state, stayed cordial. “I have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score,” Trump said, adding that “it’s one of our few disagreement, actually.”

When Trump was asked about his lack of progress in brokering a deal to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine and he acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “let me down,” Starmer escalated the flattery a notch. The prime minister said he and Trump had discussed how to “decisively increase the pressure on Putin” and that Trump had “led the way here.”

There was disagreement, too, over immigration policy.

Trump urged Britain to take a harder line and insisted he had made clear to Starmer that when too many people enter illegally, it “destroys countries from within.” Still, when Starmer sharply criticized Hamas, Trump reached over from his podium and slapped the prime minister on the back in support.