Trump gushes over Meloni: ‘She’s a fantastic leader and person’

 

Trump gushes over Meloni: ‘She’s a fantastic leader and person’

 

The U.S. president-elect praises the Italian PM, saying he’ll work with her when he returns to the White House.

 

December 13, 2024 2:43 am CET

By Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing

https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-gushes-over-meloni-shes-a-fantastic-leader-and-person/

 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s fan club has a new president: Donald Trump.

 

Trump, who is due to return to the White House next month, had only good things to say about Meloni when asked by a reporter to comment on the Italian PM on Thursday.

 

“She’s fantastic. She’s a fantastic leader and person,” Trump gushed, answering “Yes!” when asked if he’d work with his Italian counterpart after he’s inaugurated.

 

The feeling appears mutual — Meloni reposted a video of Trump’s comments on Thursday evening, thanking the president-elect for his “kind words.”

 

The interaction is just the latest round of mutual back-slapping between the incoming Trump administration and Meloni, whom POLITICO named the most powerful person in Europe this week in part due to her position as a bridge between the EU and Trump’s White House.

 

Meloni was one of the first European leaders to congratulate Trump on his election win in November, and Trump reportedly called Meloni a “real live wire” after spending “a lot” of time with her in Paris last weekend at the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

 

A Trump-Meloni friendship comes as no surprise — the two right-wingers have a mutual buddy: billionaire entrepreneur and key Trump ally Elon Musk. The X owner recently showered Meloni with praise at an awards ceremony in September. His adulation — which included repeatedly calling Meloni “beautiful” — even sparked rumors of a romance between the two, which Musk has denied.

 

But not everyone in the Trump orbit is as effusive about Meloni. Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon recently claimed Meloni’s efforts to ingratiate herself with centrists in Brussels had scuttled her shot at being relevant with the incoming administration.