French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the United States on Monday for talks with President Donald Trump. Upon his arrival, Macron and his wife Brigitte were flown to Mount Vernon, Washingtons historic riverside home, for a private dinner one night before the leaders sit down for talks on a weighty agenda including security, trade and the Iran nuclear deal. At the White House on Tuesday, Macron will be welcomed with a traditional arrival ceremony featuring nearly 500 members of the US military and a booming 21-gun salute. The state visit also offers Macron his first Oval Office sit-down with Trump and a joint White House news conference. Theres also a State Department lunch hosted by Vice President Mike Pence. "This is a great honor and I think a very important state visit given the moment of our current environment," Macron said after his plane landed at a US military base near Washington. Before getting the full red carpet treatment at the White House on Monday -- payback for wooing Trump with military parades and a dazzling Eiffel Tower dinner in Paris last July -- Macron took an impromptu stroll to the Lincoln Memorial with his wife Brigitte. Hailing the "very important" visit, Macron then rolled into the West Wing from Lafayette Square -- named after the storied French general who fought in Americas war for independence -- beneath dozens of fluttering tricolor French flags and before a full US military color guard. At Mount Vernon, they talked about the state of the US economy, Trumps approval rating, the mid-term elections in November in the US, internet regulation and the fight against terrorism, according to the French leaders office. Trump declared the dinner "really fantastic" before returning to the White House. The remainder of Macron’s agenda will see him tackle tough issues, such as biting trade sanctions on European steel and aluminum that will enter into force on May 1 unless Trump agrees to sign a waiver. If he refuses, there are fears of a full-fledged trade war. The Iran nuclear deal is also looming large over the talks. France and other European nations are battling to save the complex 2015 agreement, which Trump will scuttle if he refuses to waive sanctions against Tehran by a May 12 deadline. Iran says it is ready to relaunch its nuclear program -- which the West suspects is designed to produce a bomb -- if Trump kills the deal. European officials say Trumps demand to reopen the deal are impossible, and are scrambling to address his concerns on Tehrans missile testing, inspections and the regimes behavior in the region. There is growing frustration in European capitals that Trumps stubbornness over the Obama-era agreement is diverting attention away from other pressing issues. "If you make war against everybody," Macron told Fox News on Sunday, "trade war against Europe, war in Syria, war against Iran – come on -- it doesnt work. You need allies. We are the allies." Macron will also be keen to temper Trumps instinct to precipitously pull the US military out of Syria, amid cooperation in fighting ISIS and coordinated strikes on chemical weapons installations operated by the Damascus regime. "I think the US role is very important to play," he said. "Why? I will be very blunt. The day we will have finished this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and these guys." Current divisions aside, the Washington and Paris are keen to emphasize their historic relationship -- recalling that France was the first ally of American revolutionaries fighting for independence. Macron brought with him an oak sapling that he and Trump planted at the White House on Monday as a symbol of friendship. It comes from near the site of the Battle of Belleau Woods in northern France, where 2,000 US Marines perished at the end of World War I. The pair, clearly relaxed, also briefly visited the Oval Office before heading to Mount Vernon. On a personal level, despite sharp differences in political background, age and lifestyle, the presidents seem to have struck up a bond as fellow outsiders who outwitted the establishment to gain power. "We have a very special relationship because both of us are probably the maverick of the systems on both sides," Macron told Fox News. Trump himself told Macron their "friendship" was "unbreakable" during his trip to Paris last year.