The pressure is ramping up on Anthony Albanese to meet Donald Trump. As The Australian Financial Review’s Washington correspondent, Jessica Gardner, reports, US congressional politicians fighting to help save the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact are calling on the prime minister to prioritise visiting the White House to forge closer personal ties with the president.

It’s good tactical advice from members of congress on both sides of the aisle. Leaders who pay court in person are more likely to extract a beneficial deal from the transactional president. Yet this can prove risky, as the Oval Office clash between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February dramatically highlighted.