cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28301959

Sitting alone at the end of a dinner party, under chandeliers, next to a table with white roses and leftover wine, Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump are locked in conversation.

Whatever was discussed, however, Meloni appears to be holding sway. Trump later described her as “a real live wire” and someone he could work with “to straighten out the world a little bit”. He may well have received positive reports on her from Elon Musk, with whom the Italian prime minister has met on several occasions and whom she has called “a brilliant man”.

As the relationship progressed, Meloni paid a flying visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida a month later, and was the only European leader to attend his inauguration as US president.

Now her influence over Trump is to be put to the test when the pair reunite in Washington on Thursday for their first bilateral summit. Meloni is the first European leader to meet Trump since he paused some of his planned tariff hikes last week.