Giorgia Meloni visits Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago

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Giorgia Meloni had dinner with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf club on Saturday, as the Italian prime minister looks to strengthen ties with the US president-elect ahead of his swearing-in.

The Italian The leader’s unannounced trip comes days before outgoing US President Joe Biden’s planned visit to Rome and the Vatican. This will be his last trip abroad before his retirement.

“This is very exciting – I’m here with an amazing woman – the prime minister of Italy,” Trump told the audience at Mar-a-Lago. “She’s really taken Europe and everyone else by storm, and we’re just having dinner tonight.”

Melons She did not comment publicly, nor did her office comment on her trip.

She was an ardent admirer of Trump during his first term – when she was still a fringe figure in the opposition – and more recently has developed a close friendship with Trump adviser Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.

Also present at Mar-a-Lago was Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, who called Meloni a “great ally, a strong leader.”

Members of Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party hope the two leaders’ ideological affinity will help her become one of Trump’s key European interlocutors. The president-elect expressed his enthusiasm for the Italian head of state, whom he also met in Paris last month at the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Meloni is one of the few foreign leaders who traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump after his re-election and before his Jan. 20 inauguration. Trump’s right-wing allies Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Argentina’s Javier Milei have both made visits. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made a special visit after Trump threatened to impose 25 percent import tariffs on Canada.

Meloni’s trip came as she faced her biggest diplomatic challenge since taking office, amid domestic outrage over the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala.

Sala, who was in Iran on a valid journalist visa, was arrested just days after Italy arrested an Iranian engineer and businessman wanted in the United States for allegedly exporting drone technology that killed three American soldiers in Jordan a year ago became.

The Italian journalist told her family in a rare phone call home that she was being held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where she slept on the floor and had the lights on 24 hours a day.

Iran’s official state news agency IRNA has reported that Sala was arrested for “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic,” without providing further details.

However, the Iranian embassy in Rome has specifically linked Sala’s detention to Italy’s Dec. 16 arrest of Mohammad Abedini, an engineer whose expedited release has been demanded by Tehran.

According to the US Department of Justice, Abedini, who is currently in prison in Milan, is being tried on various criminal charges relating to the alleged “illegal export of sophisticated electronic components” from the US to Iran.

Tehran has warned Rome of damage to bilateral relations if its citizen is extradited to the US. Abedini is scheduled to appear in court in Italy on January 15, where his lawyer will argue for him to be released from prison and placed under house arrest.

The U.S. Justice Department has warned Rome against such a move, citing previous precedents in which suspects wanted by the U.S. for criminal proceedings succeeded Escape from Italian house arrest.

The Sala case is not the only issue likely to test Rome’s relations with Washington once Trump returns to the White House later this month.

Businesses fear the Italian economy will suffer a severe blow if Trump follows through on his promise to impose high tariffs on all imports. Rome is also falling far short of its NATO commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense – a key focus for Trump, who wants Europe to cover a larger share of its own security spending.

Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome

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