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Giorgia Meloni dined with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf club on Saturday, as the Italian Prime Minister seeks to strengthen ties with the US President-elect before being sworn in.
The Italian leader's unannounced trip comes days before outgoing US President Joe Biden visits Rome and the Vatican, in what will be his last foreign trip before leaving office.
“This is very exciting – I'm here with a wonderful woman – the Prime Minister of Italy,” Trump told the crowd at Mar-a-Lago. “You have surprised Europe, and everyone else, as we dine tonight.”
Meloni has not made any public comments, and her office has not issued any statements regarding her trip.
She was a huge fan of Trump during his first term — when she was still a fringe opposition figure — and has recently struck up a close friendship with Trump adviser Elon Musk, the world's richest man.
Marco Rubio, Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, was also present at Mar-a-Lago, who called Meloni “a great ally and a strong leader.”
Members of Meloni's right-wing Brotherhood of Italy party hope that the ideological affinity between the two leaders will help her emerge as one of Trump's main European interlocutors. Trump expressed his enthusiasm for the Italian leader, whom he met last month in Paris during the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Meloni is one of the few foreign leaders who traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump after his re-election and before his inauguration on January 20. Trump's right-wing allies, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Javier Miley of Argentina, made two visits. . Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made an emergency visit after Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports.
Meloni's trip comes as she faces her toughest diplomatic challenge since taking office amid internal political protests over Iran's arrest of… Italian journalist Cecilia Sala.
Sala, who was in Iran on a valid press visa, was arrested just days after Italy arrested an Iranian engineer and businessman wanted in the United States on charges of exporting drone technology used to kill three American soldiers in Jordan a year ago.
The Italian journalist told her family in a rare call to her home that she is being held in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, sleeping on the floor, with the lights on at all times.
The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, reported that Sala was arrested on charges of “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic,” without providing any further details.
However, the Iranian embassy in Rome explicitly linked Sala's arrest to Italy's arrest of engineer Mohammad Abedini on December 16, whose immediate release Tehran demanded.
Abedini, now detained in prison in Milan, is wanted by the United States to stand trial on various criminal charges for allegedly “illegally exporting advanced electronic components” from the United States to Iran, according to the US Department of Justice.
Tehran warned Rome against harming bilateral relations if its citizen was extradited to the United States. Abedini is scheduled to appear in court in Italy on January 15, where his lawyer will demand that he be released from prison and placed under house arrest.
The US Department of Justice warned Rome against such a move, citing previous precedents under which suspects wanted by the United States for criminal prosecution had access to… Escape from Italian house arrest.
Sala's case is not the only one likely to test Rome's relationship with Washington, once Trump returns to the White House later this month.
Companies fear that the Italian economy will suffer a severe blow if Trump carries out his promise to impose heavy tariffs on all imports. Rome is also well short of its NATO commitment to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense — a major focus for Trump, who wants Europe to pay for more of its security spending.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome
