Italy’s Giorgia Meloni to meet Trump at the White House with the weight of EU anxiety on her shoulders

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was to meet at the White House on Thursday with President Trump, in what her aides have called a high-stakes “commercial peace mission.”

European leaders are hoping Italy’s right-wing premier can position herself as a bridge between the Trump administration and the European Union, which Mr. Trump and his top aides have bashed as a deadbeat, if not abusive partner on defense and trade.

The hope not only in Rome, but in EU capitals across the 27-nation bloc is likely that Meloni can persuade Mr. Trump not to impose the steep tariff hikes he’s threatened, which could devastate European economies.

Meloni and Trump seem to “get along great”

Meloni has positioned herself as the European leader Mr. Trump is most likely to listen to. The two have developed a relationship based on shared political and ideological affinities on issues including immigration and LGBTQ rights. 

Meloni was the only European leader to be invited to Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January, and he has praised her multiple times, calling her a “fantastic leader and person,” and someone he could potentially work with to “straighten out the world a little bit.”

After the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last year, which both leaders attended, Mr. Trump was quoted by the New York Post as saying: “I was with her a lot” and “we get along great.”

But the Italian leader will have to try to balance that budding special relationship with her mandate to protect the interests not only of her own nation’s economy, but the EU’s, with which Italy’s financial future is inextricably linked.

Europe has hope, and anxiety, over the Trump-Meloni meeting

Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen discussed strategies on how to approach her meeting with Mr. Trump during multiple phone calls ahead of the trip, according to a commission spokesperson. 

Von der Leyen herself has not yet been granted a meeting with Mr. Trump, despite repeated requests. Meloni’s sit-down at the White House will be the first with any European leader since the administration announced its tariffs on virtually every nation with which the U.S. conducts trade at the beginning of April. The EU was hit with a blanket 20% tariff rate on all exports to the U.S. with that announcement, though Mr. Trump put those higher rates on hold for 90 days about a week later, as global stock markets reeled, leaving a 10% universal rate in place.

Meloni has gently chided the sweeping tariffs on the EU as “wrong,” but she’s been one of the voices urging the continental bloc not to impose retaliatory measures, insisting that a calm response focused on negotiations would bring a more constructive resolution.

The White House claims dozens of counties have come forward seeking to negotiate new trade agreements with the U.S., with Mr. Trump boasting that leaders were calling him and “kissing my ass,” begging to strike deals to avoid the reimposition of the higher levies.

“We know we’re going through a difficult period, let’s see how it goes in the coming hours. I am feeling no pressure, as you can imagine, for my next two days,” Meloni said with a note of clear irony at an awards ceremony two days before her White House meeting. “I am aware of what I represent, and I am aware of what I am defending.”

Not all European politicians were so sanguine about the potential outcome of the Trump-Meloni meeting, however.  Italian opposition politician Carlo Calenda said, “the most important thing is that Meloni does not allow herself to be used by Trump to split the European front.”

In other European capitals, there was clear anxiety over the possibility that the White House could use the meeting to try to undermine EU unity.

“If we start having bilateral discussions, obviously it will break the current dynamic,” the French government’s Minister for Industry and Energy, Marc Ferracci, said last week, adding: “Europe is only strong if it is united.”

The French news agency AFP said a government spokeswoman later stressed that any voices capable of encouraging dialogue between Washington and the EU were to be welcomed. That statement echoed the remarks by the EU spokesperson on Monday, who noted the close coordination between Meloni and Von der Leyen ahead of the Italian leader’s trip to Washington and said the “outreach is very welcome.”

After her brief visit to Washington the Italian leader will return home, where she’s expected to meet on Friday with Vice President JD Vance during his visit to the Italian capital and the Vatican.

French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin have met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office since he took office for his second term, but those encounters all came prior to the massive tariffs announcement on April 2.