Republican congressman Jason Smith was a guest of honour at Parliament House on Thursday, watching question time from the floor of the chamber and holding talks with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

The chair of the US congress’ powerful ways and means committee has spent recent days helping ministers decode Donald Trump and grapple with uncertain times in the Australia-US alliance.

But the Missourian’s presence might have been fortuitous timing for Labor, as the government sought to head off an awkward diplomatic snafu involving the defence minister, Richard Marles.

Announcing an apparently last-minute visit to Washington DC on Sunday, Marles said he planned to meet his US counterpart, the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, in Washington.

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There’s plenty for the two countries to discuss: the Aukus nuclear submarine agreement, Australia’s push for tariff exemptions and Hegseth’s demands Australia dramatically increase defence spending.

Only it wasn’t entirely clear why the meeting was so urgent, or if Hegseth had agreed to a meeting at all. A vague social media post by Marles suggested he’d spent more time with the vice-president, JD Vance, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

Things got worse for Labor on Thursday morning, when an unnamed Pentagon spokesperson said no formal meeting with Hegseth had taken place, describing Hegseth’s interaction with Marles as “a happenstance encounter”.

Marles insisted he had held substantive discussions with Hegseth, including on the Pentagon’s review of Aukus, a point of major anxiety that would not be resolved until at least the end of the year.

As Labor raced to save face, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson confirmed the pair had in fact met, in talks described as having been “coordinated in advance”. The Trump administration was living up to its reputation for chaos, just weeks before the foreign and defence ministers were expected to meet their US counterparts anyway.

Amid growing embarrassment for the deputy prime minister – the subject of a recent magazine profile titled ‘Nobody likes Richard Marles’ – Smith’s presence in Canberra can’t have been completely coincidental to events. There was speculation he might have intervened, pointing out the US was humiliating a senior figure from one of its closest allies, either inadvertently or deliberately.

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The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, made hay in question time. In her speech to welcome Smith, she noted wryly that “face-to-face meetings are important”.

For his part, Marles talked a lot and made things less clear. Liberal Angus Taylor asked if he’d gone halfway around the world for a real meeting or just a photo opportunity.

Marles declared the Liberal party was “a joke” before suggesting the opposition might believe the photos with Hegseth were AI fakes. The energy minister, Chris Bowen, jokingly suggested Marles might have faked the moon landing as well.

Albanese left question time frustrated at the opposition’s line of inquiry this week, including on the Marles trip and other matters he saw as trivial.

But the problem might be a bit more serious for Labor.

The chaos over the Hegseth meeting is nothing compared to Albanese’s wait for his first meeting with Trump. The stakes could hardly be higher, least of all because Australia has already sent $1.6bn to the US for the nuclear subs no one is sure will ever actually be received.

Worse, Australia’s closest security and foreign policy partner appears not to care much about us at all.

Albanese heads to New York next month. He will be hoping talks with congressman Smith can pave the way for an altogether more certain itinerary.