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Giorgia Meloni dined with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf club on Saturday as the Italian prime minister sought to strengthen ties with the US president-elect before he is sworn in relation.
The Italian leader’s unannounced visit comes just days before outgoing US President Joe Biden visits Rome and the Vatican in what will be his last overseas trip before leaving office.
“It’s very exciting – I’m here with a wonderful woman – the Prime Minister of Italy,” Trump told the audience at Mar-a-Lago. “She’s really taking Europe and everyone else by storm, and we’re just having dinner tonight.”
Meloni has made no public comments and her office has not issued any statement regarding her travel.
She was an ardent admirer of Trump during his first term — when she was still a fringe opposition figure — and more recently developed a close friendship with Elon Musk, a Trump adviser and the world’s richest man.
Also present at Mar-a-Lago was Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, who called Meloni a “great ally and a strong leader.”
Members of Meloni’s right-wing Brotherhood of Italy party hope the two leaders’ ideological affinity will help her become one of Trump’s main European interlocutors. The president-elect expressed enthusiasm for the Italian leader, whom he also met last month during the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Meloni was one of the few foreign leaders who made the trek to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump after his re-election and before his inauguration on January 20. Mire had visited. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made an emergency visit after Trump threatened to impose 25% import tariffs on Canada.
Meloni’s visit comes as she faces her toughest diplomatic challenge since taking office amid domestic political outcry over the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Iran.
Sala was in Iran on a valid journalist visa, days after Italy arrested an Iranian engineer and businessman wanted by the United States for allegedly exporting drone technology that killed three American soldiers in Jordan a year ago.
The Italian journalist told her family in a rare phone call home that she was being held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, sleeping on the floor with the lights on.
Iran’s official state news agency IRNA reported that Sala was arrested for “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic” but did not provide any further details.
However, the Iranian embassy in Rome explicitly linked Sala’s detention to Italy’s December 16 arrest of engineer Mohammad Abedini, and Tehran demanded his release be expedited.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Abedini, who is currently being held in a Milan prison, is facing multiple criminal charges in the United States for allegedly “illegally exporting complex electronic components to Iran” from the United States.
Tehran warned Rome that bilateral relations would be damaged if its citizens were extradited to the United States. Abedini is due to appear in court in Italy on January 15, where his lawyers will plead for him to be taken out of jail and placed under house arrest.
The U.S. Justice Department warned Rome against taking such a step, citing past precedent in which suspects seeking criminal trials in the U.S. have successfully escaped house arrest in Italy.
Sala’s case is not the only issue that could test Rome’s relationship with Washington once Trump returns to the White House later this month.
Businesses fear that if Trump follows through on his promise to impose high tariffs on all imported products, the Italian economy will suffer a heavy blow. Rome is also far from fulfilling its NATO pledge to spend 2% of GDP on defense – a major focus of Trump, who wants Europe to pay more of its own security spending.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome
