Donald Trump receives Giorgia Meloni at his home and calls her “fantastic”

Not yet installed in the White House, Donald Trump is therefore designing his future diplomatic alliances from home. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was received on Saturday in Florida by the elected President of the United States.

The far-right leader’s services released photographs on Sunday showing her alongside the Republican in her sumptuous Mar-a-Lago residence. These images immediately made the front pages of all Italian media on Sunday. They also show Giorgia Meloni shaking hands with Marco Rubio, future secretary of state, that is to say head of diplomacy.

Communicators remain silent

The services of the head of the Italian government neither issued a press release nor responded to repeated requests for confirmation of this visit, while the communicators of the elected Republican president remained equally silent.

American journalists present at Mar-a-Lago, however, clarified that the meeting took place around a dinner and a film screening. “I am here with a fantastic woman, the Prime Minister of Italy. She conquered Europe,” declared Donald Trump, according to comments reported by these reporters.

The film screened Saturday evening, still according to journalists, is a documentary called Eastman Dilemmadedicated to lawyer John Eastman, prosecuted for trying to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.

Biden expected in Rome

Several other foreign leaders – including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – have visited the US president-elect in recent months, whose inauguration ceremony is scheduled for January 20. Major business leaders also paraded at Mar-a-Lago, from where Donald Trump is orchestrating his return to power, in particular the bosses of Meta, Google, and Amazon.

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This visit by Giorgia Meloni, who heads the Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) party, comes four days before a visit to Rome by US President Joe Biden, who is due to meet her and, in a separate interview, Pope Francis.