Meloni pays surprise flying visit to Trump in Florida

'She's taken Europe by storm' says US president-elect

By: ansa.it

Jan 05 2025
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Meloni pays surprise flying vi

Premier Giorgia Meloni paid a surprise flying visit to United States President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Saturday.
    Meloni, the leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, arrived in Florida at around 19:30 local time and flew back to Rome less than five hours later.
    "She's really taken Europe by storm," Trump said of Meloni before a group of people at the residence, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Alex Leary.
    Incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also present and called Meloni a "great ally, strong leader", Leary reported.
    The war in Ukraine, gas supplies and possible new US tariffs on EU goods were among the issues the leaders discussed, sources said.
    The New York Times reported that Meloni also pressed hard about the case of Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist arrested in Iran, three days after an Iranian engineer Mohammad Abedini was picked up at Milan's Malpensa airport on US charges of supplying drone parts used to kill three servicemen in Jordan.
    During the visit, Trump showed Meloni a documentary about alleged fraud in the 2020 US presidential election.