World leaders who accepted the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump to join his new peace board were greeted in Washington on Thursday with a mix of fanfare and personal flattery.

While the U.S. president has been chummy with world leaders in the past, he has typically leaned in to a good-cop-bad-cop routine, alternating between praise and threats ?as his interests dictate.

On Thursday, those in attendance saw Trump at his most convivial. There was no hint of ?the criticized ?human-rights records of some attendees. It was only those who did not attend the inaugural meeting ?of the board in Washington who received an ominous warning: ¡°You can¡¯t play cute with me,¡± Trump said.