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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni should meet the president Donald Trump Thursday in a decision to facilitate tensions and to play the intermediary between the White House and the European Union in the middle of the litania of the prices that the president levied against the block.
Trump described Meloni as a “fantastic chief and person”, and the Italian Prime Minister was one of the few international leaders to attend his January inauguration.
But the Italian leader would have more in his mind than to maintain positive relations with Trump. It seeks to carry out the load in the protection of the EU economy.
Donald Trump, the president of the time, met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, January 4, 2025. (Italian government / document via Reuters)
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“I think that Europeans see it as an opportunity, not as a trap. Meloni is perfectly positioned to serve as a transatlantic bridge between Brussels and Washington,” said Peter Rough, main scholarship and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia with the Hudson Institute, Fox News Digital.
“She has good relations with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the [European Union] Commission and is a natural adjustment for Trump, given their national mutual conservatism, “he added.
The EU has until July to convince the president to overthrow the course on his 20% of “reciprocal prices” which he delivered on April 2 “the Liberation Day”, which he stopped a week later for 90 days after world fallout.
But the EU is still subject to the 10% reference rates with which Trump hit all business partners, as well as 25% prices on steel, aluminum and vehicles.
These rates, although undesirable, were not a total shock for international leaders while Trump had committed to promulgating radical prices on the campaign track, and in the weeks preceding on April 2, EU leaders would have proposed A zero zero rate takes care of Washington to prevent the president from promulgating the prices.
The White House did not answer questions from Fox News Digital on the reasons why the president did not accept the agreement and rather advanced what he called “reciprocal rates”.
President Donald Trump holds a table of “reciprocal prices” while he speaks during a commercial announcement event at the White House on April 2, 2025. (SOMODEVILLA / GETTY Images)
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But Meloni should push this proposal because it is under pressure not only to balance the position of Italy as a member of the EU and preserve its solid historical links with the United States, it also faces the internal pressure due to the consequences that a trade war with the United States would have on the economy of its country.
The United States has become the Non-U ° 1 export market in Italy, worth $ 76 billion in 2024, although Rome imported that $ 32 billion in the United States the same year, according to government commercial datacontributing to Trump classified as “unfair” trading practices
President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (Getty Images)
Italy is the third EU exporter to the United States behind Germany and Ireland, which means that Meloni faces significant internal pressure to take advantage of his good relations with Trump before the Italians begin to feel real economic pain, in particular because several industries that Washington has targeted in his tariff war continues from American exports like machines, pharmaceutics, textiles And food exports such as American cheese and wine.
“Rather than succumbing to histrionic or burning bridges with the White House, she carefully chose her words since the president made his price two weeks ago,” said Rouh. “I don’t know if she will be successful this week, but if someone can do it, it’s probably Meloni. She has a lot of credibility.”
Other EU leaders, such as the Prime Minister of Irelandmade travel similar to the United States to meet Trump, although it is not enough to avoid the 20% coverage rate that Trump announced this month.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the left, and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (Thierry Monasse / Getty Images)
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However, The reports indicate That some EU leaders hope that Meloni will be the only one to turn the trend.
But the EU does not put all its eggs in the Meloni basket. Earlier this week, the EU Commissioner for Trade Maros Šefčovič met the American trade secretary Howard Lunick and the US trade representative Jamieson Greer and declared in a Social media message that the EU remains determined to find a “mutual solution at unjustified prices”.
“The EU remains constructive and ready for a good deal-including reciprocity through our price offer 0 for 0 on industrial goods and work on non-tariff barriers,” he wrote. “The realization of this will require a significant joint effort on both sides.”
The Meloni office did not immediately answer Fox News Digital questions as to whether it would consider an agreement between Italy and the United States rather than working on an entire EU agreement.
