Can President Biden put pressure on the DUP?

President Biden with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US Ambassador to the UK Jane Hartley and US Envoy to Northern Ireland Joe Kennedy

It was to be the moment of triumph with President Biden jetting in to celebrate the return of power sharing at Stormont.

A moment to remember an old agreement 25 years on and look forward to a new one bringing some much-needed political stability.

Provisions were even in place for a special presidential address to returning assembly members (MLAs) in the Northern Ireland Assembly chamber.

The Windsor Framework agreed between London and Brussels to revise the Northern Ireland Protocol was considered the game changer.

But the DUP clearly didn't get the Whitehouse memo.

The party's Stormont boycott remains intact as the president's great plans were left in tatters.

Instead we have been left with a scaled-down presidential visit with just one public engagement in Belfast lasting just over an hour.

But, for many, the significance of a visit by a US president cannot be measured in minutes.

It puts a global spotlight on Northern Ireland - if even for an afternoon - which countries elsewhere can only dream off.

Harnessing that moment and maximising the opportunity is the challenge for both businesses and political leaders.

A task not helped by the lack of a functioning Stormont.

The president's visit has been scaled down

Though pressed for time today, Joe Biden is making space to meet the party leaders for a brief chat ahead of his speech at Ulster University.

Much of the focus will be on his discussions with DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.

Will he apply some presidential pressure or gently try to nudge the party back to power sharing?

In truth, the DUP is beyond the reach of President Biden as the party has already slipped into election mode.

Now is not the time for compromise with the council elections next month.

The best President Biden can hope for is a DUP commitment to revisit its Northern Ireland Executive boycott in the autumn.

Maybe then legislation will be in place to ease the DUP's constitutional concerns.

• Joe Biden aims to 'keep the peace'

• Is Biden's trip a missed opportunity?

However, President Biden will wave the potential of fresh US investment to tempt the DUP to new ground.

Expect to hear more about that pledge in the president's speech with his special economic envoy Joe Kennedy standing in the wings.

He will talk up the opportunities of dual market access as protected through the Windsor Framework.

But when it comes to the Stormont stalemate, he will likely chose his words carefully.

Some politicians blame Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's DUP for a missed opportunity

Singling out the DUP will only serve to deepen the party's mistrust of the Biden administration.

He must find the words to acknowledge the deep frustration of the other Stormont parties without completely isolating Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his party.

That's a task made easier against the backdrop of a new university campus and not a deserted assembly chamber.

President Biden will also focus on local businesses success stories in his speech and expect him to name drop some faces in the audience.

But absent from the gathering will be the man who invited the president to Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be missing as he has another engagement.

On the surface that appears odd and only adds to reports of strained relations between Downing Street and the Whitehouse over the scaled-down visit.

Downing Street has been working hard to play up the significance of the prime minister's role.

Firstly rejecting Whitehouse claims the meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Sunak on Wednesday morning is nothing more than a chat over coffee.

A bilateral and not a bi-latte.

There are reports of strained relations between Downing Street and the Whitehouse over the scaled-down visit

Then Number 10 rejected suggestions the prime minister's role was "low key".

So don't be surprised if the prime minister's other private engagement, pulling him away from the president's one and only public event, is made public.

By then, the presidential cavalcade will likely have left Northern Ireland en route to Dublin.

Together with his sister and close confidante Valerie and his son Hunter, President Biden will revisit his ancestral roots in counties Louth and Mayo.

It will be a trip laced with all the positive images of a returning Irish-American president.

The images which will come in handy when President Biden finally declares his plan to run for a second term in office.

With 30m Americans claiming to have Irish roots, any opportunity to reaffirm his Irish connections is a potential vote winner for President Biden.

When he climbs the steps of Airforce One on Friday, it will be the images from the Republic of Ireland and not the brief Belfast stopover which will feature in the Biden '23 collection.