Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy visited President-elect Donald J. Trump on Saturday at his Florida golf membership for an off-the-cuff assembly.
The journey to the membership, Mar-a-Lago, got here just a few days earlier than Ms. Meloni is about to welcome President Biden for an official go to to Italy and the Vatican from Jan. 9 to 12.
On Saturday, she appeared within the grand ballroom at Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Trump, in line with pool reviews, mentioned he was having dinner with Ms. Meloni, whom he referred to as “a unbelievable lady,” including, “She’s actually taken Europe by storm, and everybody else.”
They, together with some potential members of the long run Trump administration, together with the nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and for Treasury, Scott Bessent, then watched a screening of a movie titled, “The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice.”
Ms. Meloni and Mr. Trump have expressed mutual appreciation prior to now, and her journey is among the first few visits by a international chief to the president-elect’s property in Florida since his election in November. The assembly reinforces the hopes of Ms. Meloni’s supporters that the conservative Italian prime minister will turn out to be Mr. Trump’s go-to ally in Europe.
A lot of that function would contain mediating tensions between different European leaders and Mr. Trump, who has threatened to begin a commerce warfare with the continent, in addition to to scale back American backing for some NATO international locations and for Ukraine in its warfare with Russia.
The agenda of the assembly was unclear on Saturday evening, however observers anticipated the 2 leaders would focus on these points.
One other potential subject of dialogue, in line with observers, was the detention in Iran of a distinguished Italian reporter, Cecilia Sala. It occurred a couple of days after Italy arrested, on the request of america, an Iranian suspected of offering drone elements to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iran has routinely detained foreigners and twin residents to commerce them for cash and folks.
One individual briefed on the assembly mentioned Ms. Meloni had pressed aggressively for it.
She additionally has a great relationship with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a detailed adviser of the president-elect’s, which her supporters hope will bolster her worldwide standing as soon as Mr. Trump turns into president.
Since being elected, Mr. Trump has welcomed to Mar-a-Lago Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, a champion of “intolerant democracy,” in addition to Argentina’s firebrand right-wing president, Javier Milei. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada turned the primary Group of Seven chief to go to Mr. Trump in Florida because the election, after a risk to impose tariffs on Canada.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
