Meloni and Trump Oval Oval Office Meeting Cements Special Report

For international leaders, visiting the White House these days is an unpredictable company that has a risk of being embarrassed, or worse, reprimanded by President Trump. For Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, the meeting on Thursday at the Oval office was largely a gentle case, Trump covering her hyperbolic praise and clearly showing that he loves her.

But beyond the anti-immigration friendly jokes and shared optimism that the European Union and the United States would conclude a trade agreement, neither of the two leaders indicated that they had made substantial progress on the negotiations on prices and other questions.

“We are not in a hurry,” said Trump.

Ms. Meloni was the first European leader to visit the White House since Trump imposed, then partly has a pause against the European Union. And the meeting dissipated the remaining doubts about the special relationship between the two leaders. But what the report could give for Italy and for Europe has remained clear.

“It was treated as a first -row ally,” said Lorenzo Castellani, a political scientist at Luis Guido Carli University in Rome, adding that he was unusual for Italy, which is not a military or economic power.

“She became de facto mediating,” he added, “but in concrete terms, she did not bring anything home.”

The commercial policy of European countries takes place collectively through the European Union, and Ms. Meloni clearly indicated that she could not seek an agreement on behalf of the block. So maybe her greatest success has been that Trump accepts his invitation to make an official visit to “a near future” in Rome, where she hoped that he would meet European officials. If this happens, this could help cement its conduit position between Europe and the United States. For the moment, however, as she said, Trump had offered no guarantee that he would meet with European officials.