The meeting took place as Iran imprisoned an Italian reporter and demanded the release of a businessman facing extradition to the United States.
PALM BEACH, Fla.—President-elect Donald Trump hosted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night.
Trump and Meloni were accompanied by the president-elect’s nominee for secretary of state, former Sen. Marco Rubio, and his national security adviser Mike Waltz. Also present were Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent and U.S. ambassador to Italy nominee Tilman Fertitta.
After dinner, Trump made another appearance.
“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,” he told his supporters.
Rubio called Meloni a “great ally, strong leader.”
The meeting occurred as Meloni facies a foreign policy test following the arrest of Italian reporter Cecilia Sala in Iran on Dec. 19 while working under a regular journalist visa.
According to Italian media reports, Sala is in solitary confinement in a freezing cold cell with a neon light left on night and day, her glasses have been confiscated, and she has had hardly any contact with the outside world.
The Italian national was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a U.S. arrest warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2023 attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.
On Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry summoned Italy’s ambassador over Abedini’s detention, Iranian state media reported.
State media reported that an Iranian foreign ministry official had urged Italy to “reject America’s hostage policy” and not cooperate with the U.S. warrant, which it called “contrary to international law.”
Tehran also urged the Meloni administration to release Abedini as soon as possible to “prevent damage to bilateral ties.”
Abedini is being held in prison, and a court is due to decide later this month whether to grant him house arrest while judges consider the U.S. extradition request.
“We don’t discuss meetings that may or may not have happened, but it’s no surprise world leaders have reached out to President Trump after his historic win to develop better relations with the United States,” Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said earlier Saturday when addressing rumors of a potential meeting.
Reuters contributed to this report.
