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US President-elect Donald Trump meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Mar a Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, USA on January 4, 2025.
Government of Italy | Reuters
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made a surprise visit to Mar a Lago on Sunday, meeting new President Donald Trump for the second time since he won the US election in November.
During a meeting in Florida, Trump called Maloney “a fantastic woman … she really took Europe by storm” at a press briefing.
Melon, meanwhile, Posted on X that she had a “good evening” with Trump, adding that she was “ready to work together,” according to a Google translation of her message.
She previously spoke with the president-elect on the sidelines of the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in early December.
The mutual admiration means Maloney is well placed to position himself as a key ally for Trump in Europe. Her transatlantic efforts come at a challenging time for fellow European heavyweights Germany and France, whose leaders are grappling with domestic political problems and have both faced criticism from Trump.
Maloney has a number of reasons to court the incoming administration, not the least of which is the threat of Trump’s tariffs on Europe. During his election campaign, former Pres threatened to introduce a 10% tariff on all goods imported to the USA, the largest trade partner of the European Union in terms of export volumes.
US President-elect Donald Trump meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Mar a Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, USA on January 4, 2025.
Government of Italy | Reuters
For Italy, the cost could be significant.
A study by European risk analysis firm Prometeia estimated that 10% import duties could cost the Italian economy up to $7 billion, as the US is the country’s second-largest export market after Germany. Caixabank analysts estimate Italy’s exposure to the US at around 4% of GDP, just behind Germany at 5%.
Musk ties
Along with her meetings with Trump, Meloni has also been building ties with Elon Musk, the Tesla boss who is expected to play a key role in the new Trump administration. In an interview with Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera, she described him as a “great figure of our time”, adding that he was a “genius” and was wrongly portrayed as a “monster”.
Bloomberg News reported late Sunday that the Italian government is in advanced talks with Musk’s SpaceX for a $1.5 billion deal to provide Rome with secure internet service through the company’s Starlink satellite constellation, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The prime minister’s office said on Monday that Meloni did not discuss SpaceX’s plans to provide Starlink services to Italy during the meeting with Trump and denied that a new agreement had been reached.
“The Prime Minister’s Office categorically denies, considering it ridiculous, that SpaceX was a topic during a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump,” Maloney’s office said in a memo, according to Reuters. Any contact with SpaceX is part of “regular discussions” government departments have with businesses, the memo added.
— CNBC’s Ryan Brown contributed to this report.
