Trump appears with Italian Prime Minister Meloni at his Florida club
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump made an appearance Saturday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was visiting his Mar-a-Lago club.
Meloni follows Argentina President Javier Milei, who became the first world leader to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after his Election Day victory in November. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungry also traveled to Florida to meet with the president-elect.
Trump appeared at a screening of a documentary detailing challenges some conservative lawyers report facing in the legal system. He entered the grand ballroom around 7 p.m. and then returned around two hours later after having dinner.
Trump told the crowd of Meloni: “This is very exciting.”
“I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy. She’s really taken Europe by storm, and everyone else, and we’re just having dinner tonight,” Trump said.
The president-elect watched a screening of the documentary with Meloni and with his pick for the incoming administration’s secretary of state, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, as well as Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice 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 heightened tensions between Italy and Iran, which is demanding Italian authorities release an Iranian businessman who was arrested recently in Milan on a U.S. warrant in connection with a drone attack in Jordan last year that killed three American troops.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is set to travel to Rome to meet with Meloni, as well as Pope Francis, beginning Thursday. The White House says the Meloni meeting will “highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy relationship” and feature Biden thanking the prime minister “for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year.”