President-elect Donald Trump was seen in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday, alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was paying a visit to his Mar-a-Lago club.
Meloni’s visit follows a series of meetings at Mar-a-Lago, including one with Argentine President Javier Milei, who was the first world leader to meet with Trump post his election victory in November. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary also made trips to Florida to engage with the president-elect.
During the event, Trump attended a screening of a documentary that sheds light on the challenges conservative lawyers encounter within the legal system. He arrived at the grand ballroom at approximately 7 p.m., took a break for dinner, and returned around two hours later.
Trump told the crowd of Meloni: “This is very exciting.”
“I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy. She’s really taken Europe by storm, and everyone else, and we’re just having dinner tonight,” Trump said.
The president-elect watched a screening of the documentary with Meloni and with his pick for the incoming administration’s secretary of state, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, as well as Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice for national security adviser and his choice to head the Treasury Department, Scott Bessent.
Meloni’s visit comes after Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was detained by Iranian police while reporting in Tehran late last month.
Sala’s case has heightened tensions between Italy and Iran, which is demanding Italian authorities release an Iranian businessman who was arrested recently in Milan on a U.S. warrant in connection with a drone attack in Jordan last year that killed three American troops.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is set to travel to Rome to meet with Meloni, as well as Pope Francis, beginning Thursday. The White House says the Meloni meeting will “highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy relationship” and feature Biden thanking the prime minister “for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year.”
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