US President-elect Donald Trump praises Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni:  “It’s very exciting. I’m here with a fantastic woman. She had taken Europe by storm.”

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni makes surprise visit to see Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The visit comes a few days before Meloni is due to welcome Joe Biden to Rome in what is expected to be the last foreign trip of his presidency.

“This is very exciting,” Trump told a group gathered at Mar-a-Lago, according to a media pool report. “I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy. She’s taken Europe by storm.” It is the second time Meloni has met Trump since he won the US elections in November. Trump called the Italian leader “a real live-wire” when they met in Paris in early December for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Potential members of the future Trump administration were present, including Marco Rubio, the nominee for secretary of state, who welcomed Meloni to Florida and described her as a “great ally, strong leader”. The group then watched the premiere of The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice, a documentary on Trump’s former lawyer, John Eastman’s efforts to keep him in power after the 2020 US presidential elections.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is in Florida at the residence of President-elect Donald Trump to discuss relations between America and Italy, international balances and the release of our journalist Cecilia Sala, detained in Iran.