Trump hosts Italian PM Giorgia Meloni at his Mar-a-Lago resort: 'This is very exciting'

President-elect Donald Trump hosted Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. She is the most recent of several heads of state to make the trip to meet with the incoming president. 

Trump had words of praise for the 47-year-old prime minister during a Saturday evening dinner. He said she had "taken Europe by storm."

"This is very exciting," Trump told the crowd. "I'm here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy," he continued. "She's really taken Europe by storm, and everyone else, and we’re just having dinner tonight."

Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, was elected in 2022 running on a conservative platform that was pro-family and against the wave of illegal migrants who have landed in Europe over the last decade. She created a policy of “return hubs” to ensure that migrants are not released into Italy during the asylum process, according to Fox News.

"It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit," she said in October.

Meloni is likely to serve as a go-between for the Trump administration and the European Union, according to the outlet, as her coalition government appears to be the closest ideological ally for Trump in the EU. She is also close with Trump’s new ally, Elon Musk. 

Other heads of state who have come to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago since Election Day are Javier Milei of Argentina, Justin Trudeau of Canada and Viktor Orban of Hungary.