Tuesday 07 / January / 2025
Florida: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met US President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, weeks before his inauguration to the Oval Office.
Meloni made the trip to Florida days before a set meeting with outgoing US President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome.
She is the latest in a string of leaders who are courting better ties with the future president.
Argentinian President Javier Milei, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungry also traveled to Florida to meet with Trump since he won the election in November.
Meloni, however, is seen as a leader who can partner up with Trump well when it comes to US-EU relations, given they share a similar ideology and a security-first approach.
Her close relationship with tech billionaire Elon Musk — who will be influential in Trump's second term — also helps.
Trump calls Meloni ‘fantastic'
Videos on social media show members of the Mar-a-Lago resort welcoming Meloni with applause after Trump introduced her.
Italian media reported that Meloni planned on discussing the Middle East and Russia's war in Ukraine among other issues.
She is also said to have discussed the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Iran in December — an immediate challenge for Meloni which has soured relations between Italy and Iran.
Trump launched a hardline "maximum pressure campaign" against Iran during his first term in office, and will likely pursue similar policies targeting Tehran in his second term.
No official statement on the meeting has been released so far.
"This is very exciting. I'm here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy," Trump told the Mar-a-Lago crowd, according to a media pool report. "She's really taken Europe by storm."
They then sat down for a documentary on challenges that conservative lawyers face in the legal system.
Also present at the screening were Trump's picks for future Secretary of State Marco Rubio, future US national security advisor Mike Waltz and Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent.
