Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni landed at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Wednesday (April 16) a day ahead of her meeting with President Donald Trump to ease tensions over U.S. tariffs on European goods and position herself as a bridge between Washington and Brussels.
Meloni is walking a tightrope between her ideological affinity to the president and her ties with European allies, who have criticised Trump’s tariff hikes and his decision to exclude the EU from talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
While Meloni is under pressure at home to protect Italy’s export-driven economy, which last year ran a 40 billion euro ($45.4 billion) trade surplus with the U.S., she must also be seen to defend the interests of the whole 27-nation EU bloc.
Meloni was the only EU leader invited to Trump’s inauguration in January and this week’s meeting will take place the day before she hosts Vice President JD Vance in Rome — back-to-back talks that could be crucial to furthering Italian ambitions to play a pivotal role in transatlantic relations.
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