Trump welcomes a European leader he likes: Meloni of Italy

WASHINGTON — The Oval Office bargaining over tariffs is accelerating.

A day after a Japanese delegation met with President Donald Trump, it was Italy’s turn, with the White House arrival Thursday of one of the few European leaders Trump likes: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

As Trump and Vice President JD Vance made clear at a lunch for Meloni in the Cabinet Room and a session in the Oval Office, they want her conservative, more nationalistic views to become a model for the rest of Europe.

For her part, Meloni appeared adept at handling an Oval Office meeting with Trump: no demands that might lead to a blowup like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy faced, just praise for Trump and odes to his favorite causes.

“The goal for me is to make the West great again,” she said, getting in the message that there was no room in the two leaders’ spheres for diversity programs or “woke ideology,” before pivoting to inviting Trump to Italy for an official visit.

She suggested she might use the moment to get the president to sit down with the leaders of Europe, although she acknowledged that Trump was noncommittal.

Although Meloni came to Washington representing Italy, her visit was in many ways on behalf of the rest of Europe, as it seeks more lasting relief from Trump’s tariffs.

Nearly three months into the second Trump presidency, he appears in no rush to schedule a meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. Trump has said several times in recent weeks he believes the European Union was created to “screw” the United States.

Yet as he greeted Meloni, Trump said that “there’ll be a trade deal, 100%” with the EU before the end of the 90-day pause on some U.S. tariffs.

Trump praised Meloni, whom he has seen several times before and since his inauguration, telling reporters in the Oval Office that “she has taken Europe by storm.” But when pressed later by reporters to provide an outline of what a trade deal with Europe might look like, he was not descriptive.

Although Trump has heaped compliments on Meloni, Italy is not exactly the model he has in mind for either trade or defense. It runs a $45 billion trade surplus with the United States, a testament to American hunger for luxury Italian goods, sparkling wine, fine cheeses and the 3,500 Ferraris sold in the United States each year. (If you can afford the $250,000 base price, the 25% Trump tariff on imported autos may not be a deterrent.)

And although NATO countries agreed a decade ago that all members would spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense, Italy has yet to hit 1.5%.

The Japanese left the White House on Wednesday without a tariff deal, after discussing vehicles and auto parts, and the range of electronics, computers and specialty gear that flow into the United States from the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Trump, though, crowed about “big progress” in a social media posting. Japanese officials said they were surprised that Trump entered the negotiations, but they emerged convinced that he wanted to control the conversations.

Trump measures foreign policy success not by policies set or alliances bolstered, but by deals done. So over the next three months, while some of the tariffs are suspended, he has to show that he is forcing countries to accept his terms.

To that end, Trump offered assurances Thursday that he would reach a trade deal with China, which has pushed back hard against American tariffs. But he did not offer evidence of progress.

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