Italy’s Prime Minister Visits Trump in Mar-a-Lago
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy has gone to to visit President-elect Donald J. Trump at his Florida golf club for an informal meeting held on Saturday.
The trip, to Mar-a-Lago, comes just a few days before Ms. Meloni is set to welcome President Biden in Rome for an official visit to Italy and the Vatican on Jan. 9 to 12.
On Saturday, she appeared in the grand ballroom. Mr. Trump, according to pool reports, said he was having dinner with Ms. Meloni, whom he called “a fantastic woman,” adding, “She’s really taken Europe by storm, and everyone else.”
They, along with some potential members of the future Trump administration, including the nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and for Treasury, Scott Bessent, then watched a screening of a film titled “The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice.”
Ms. Meloni and Mr. Trump have expressed mutual appreciation in the past, and her trip is one of the first few visits by a foreign leader to the president-elect’s estate in Florida since his election. The meeting reinforces the hopes of Ms. Meloni’s supporters that the conservative Italian prime minister will become Mr. Trump’s go-to ally in Europe.
Much of that role would involve mediating tensions between other European leaders and Mr. Trump, who has threatened to start a trade war with the continent as well as to reduce American backing for some NATO countries and for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The agenda of the meeting was unclear on Saturday night, but observers expected the two leaders would discuss those issues.
Another possible topic, according to observers, is the detention in Iran of a prominent Italian reporter, Cecilia Sala. It happened a few days after Italy arrested, at the request of the United States, an Iranian suspected of providing drone components to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iran has routinely detained foreigners and dual citizens to trade them for money and people.
One person briefed on the meeting said Ms. Meloni had pressed aggressively for it.
She also has a good relationship with Elon Musk, which her supporters hope will bolster her international standing once Mr. Trump becomes president.
Since being elected, Mr. Trump has welcomed to Mar-a-Lago Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, a champion of “illiberal democracy,” as well as Argentina’s firebrand right-wing president, Javier Milei. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada became the first Group of Seven leader to visit Mr. Trump in Florida since the election, after a threat to impose tariffs on Canada.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
