US President-elect Donald Trump made an appearance on Saturday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was visiting his Mar-a-Lago club.
Meloni follows Argentine President Javier Milei, who became the first world leader to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago after his election day victory in November. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also traveled to Florida to meet with the president-elect.
Trump appeared at a screening of a documentary detailing the challenges some conservative lawyers report they face in the legal system. He entered the grand ballroom around 7 pm and then returned around two hours after dinner.
Trump told the Meloni crowd, “This is very exciting.”
“I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy. She’s really taken Europe and everyone else by storm, and we’re having dinner tonight,” Trump said.
The president-elect watched a screening of the documentary with Meloni and his nominee for secretary of state in the incoming administration, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, as well as Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser and his choice to head the Treasury Department, Scott Bessent.
Meloni’s visit comes after Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was detained by Iranian police while reporting in Tehran late last month.
Sala’s case has increased tensions between Italy and Iran, which is demanding Italian authorities release an Iranian businessman who was recently arrested in Milan on a US warrant in connection with a drone attack in Jordan last year. who killed three American soldiers.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden will travel to Rome to meet with Meloni, as well as Pope Francis, starting Thursday. The White House says Meloni’s meeting “will highlight the strength of the US-Italy relationship” and Biden will thank the prime minister “for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year.”
