ShareWEST PALM BEACH/ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made a surprise trip to Florida to meet with Donald Trump late on Saturday, as the key European leader sought to strengthen ties with the president-elect before his inauguration on Jan 20. “Nice evening with Donald Trump, whom I thank for the welcome. Ready to work together,” wrote the far-right prime minister on social media, with a photograph of the two standing side-by-side at the entrance to his Florida home.
No details of the talks were released, but Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said on Sunday they covered a range of issues including the plight of Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist detained last month in Iran. “Well done Giorgia Meloni for visiting Donald Trump to talk about peace, industrial and commercial cooperation, security, and the freeing of Cecilia Sala,” Salvini, leader of the League coalition party, posted on X. Members of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort welcomed Meloni with applause after an introduction by the president-elect.
“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, and everyone else, and we’re just having dinner tonight,” Trump said. Meloni is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given her conservative credentials and the stability of the right-wing coalition she has led in Italy since late 2022. Meloni has also forged a close relationship with billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, a close Trump ally.
Tommaso Foti, Italy’s EU and regional affairs minister, said on Sunday that the meeting, which had not been announced in advance, showed that Italy could act as “a diplomatic bridge between two worlds: the European Union and the USA”. Meloni’s trip comes days before she is to meet US President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome from Thursday to Jan 12. Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election and is preparing to return to the White House.
Trump and Meloni watched a screening of a documentary questioning the criminal investigations and legal scrutiny faced by John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who was central to Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Also in attendance were Trump’s incoming national security advisor Mike Waltz and Senator Marco Rubio, tapped for secretary of state, according to US news reports from the event. Photos of the two conservative leaders side by side were on the front pages of all Italy’s newspapers Sunday.
One of the biggest challenges facing Meloni is the arrest of journalist Sala in Tehran on Dec 19. Sala was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a US warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in an attack last January that killed three US service members in Jordan. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.
Meloni became the latest in the handful of foreign leaders who have visited Trump in Florida since the Nov 5 election. He has met with Argentinian President Javier Milei, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump’s promises of introducing heavy import tariffs have led to a scramble among traditional economic allies, including in Europe, to plan for possible negative effects on trade.
Meanwhile, Musk has taken to social and traditional media to lambast the ruling governments in Germany and the United Kingdom. His comments have already ruffled feathers in Europe. The same day that Meloni was visiting Trump, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounced Musk’s “erratic” comments and his open support for the extreme-right AfD party.
On Sunday, Musk said Nigel Farage should quit as leader of Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party in an abrupt withdrawal of support for the Brexit campaigner who is trying to shake up the British political establishment again. “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk said on his social media platform X on Sunday, a few hours after Farage described him as a friend who made Reform look “cool”.
Musk had seemingly backed Farage and posed for a photograph with him last month. Media have speculated recently that Musk might make a big cash donation to Reform to help it challenge the dominant Labour and Conservative parties. But Farage has distanced himself from comments made by Musk in support of British anti-immigration and anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, who is serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.
Farage responded to Musk’s post on Sunday saying: “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree. My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.” – Agencies
