Meloni brings Trump to Europe with charm offensive

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni can breathe relieved: her visit to the White House and an unpredictable leader like Donald Trump went without sliding or incidents. The US President received Meloni – whom he described as a girlfriend – on Thursday for lunch, followed by a conversation in the Oval Office. With that, Meloni was the first European leader to officially visit Trump since the American president started a war war on 2 April.

Meloni has been involved in a complicated balancing act for months now. Her radical-right and nationalist agenda shows strong similarities with that of Trump and his vice president JD Vance, who visits Rome on Friday and meets Meloni again. At the same time, the Italian Prime Minister realizes that the economic, political and military fate of Italy is strongly connected to the rest of Europe. The EU and the Italian opposition were concerned that Meloni would play her ‘Italy First’ agenda too strongly in Washington, to the detriment of the EU.

But she didn’t. In advance, Meloni, who sees himself as a bridge builder between the EU and the US, had talked about her visit to Washington with committee chairman Ursula von der Leyen. The outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his successor Friedrich Merz, who was not yet received by Trump, also discussed the delicate visit with her. Because the European Commission has far -reaching powers with regard to trade, the Italian Prime Minister did not have an official mandate to negotiate the levies on behalf of the EU. But she was able to use a charm offensive and seduce Trump into direct discussions, in Europe.

‘Making the West big again’

Meloni said several things that Trump sounded like music to the ears. The Italian Prime Minister said he has « the West again » – a reference to Trumps election slogan « Make America Great Again » – and emphasized the points of agreement between the US and Italy under her leadership, such as the fight against illegal migration and synthetic drugs, against « Woke ».  » While Trump nodded enthusiastically, a beaming JD Vance was a little further.

The charm offensive seemed to work. Trump accepted Meloni’s invitation to visit « in the near future » Rome, and to « consider » possibility « to speak with the EU. Trump said before lunch that he is « 100 percent sure » that a deal will be reached with the EU. The US has announced import duties of 25 percent on aluminum and steel. The announced levies of 20 percent for all EU products have been suspended for 90 days, a period in which the EU is also freezing the introduction of countermeasures for the time being.

Trump said he is « 100 percent sure » that a deal will be reached with the EU

Avoiding an outright trade war is also of direct importance for Italy, Meloni realizes. The United States are the most important trading partner of Italy outside the EU, and Italy also makes direct foreign investments in the US. Meloni cleverly pointed out that « Italian companies will invest around 10 billion in the coming years, » that the economies are strongly intertwined, which « not only applies to Italy, but to the entire EU. » Businessman Trump spit the ears.

During the question moment with the press in the White House it became exciting. An Italian reporter asked Meloni what she thought of Trump blames the Ukrainian President Zenskyy for the war. The Italian Prime Minister said everyone knew how she thought about it: « Putin invaded Ukraine, but now we have to work on a sustainable and just peace. » When the interpreter struggled with the translation, Meloni hurriedly interrupted her to distract the message to the Italian promise to increase defense spending to 2 percent of GDP, as NATO has been asking for years. About Zensky, Trump said he « doesn’t blame him » – but seemed to do that afterwards. « I’m not a big fan of him. »

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