David E. Sanger
Reporting from the White House
April 17, 2025
Italian leader in D.C.: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy is meeting with President Trump at the White House, where tariffs will be high on the agenda of a visit closely managed by other European Union leaders. As he welcomed Ms. Meloni, Mr. Trump said that “there’ll be a trade deal, 100 percent” with Europe before the end of the 90-day pause on some tariffs. A deal, however, would be complicated, and Ms. Meloni has been clear that she cannot negotiate one on behalf of the E.U.
 |
| President Trump greeted Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy outside the West Wing of the White House on Thursday.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times |
The Oval Office bargaining over tariffs is accelerating
On Thursday, a day after a Japanese delegation met directly with President Trump, it is Italy’s turn, with the arrival at the White House of one of the few European leaders Mr. Trump actually likes: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative, more nationalist views should be, in the minds of many in the administration, a model for the rest of Europe.Ms. Meloni has come on behalf of Italy, but in many ways on behalf of the rest of Europe. Nearly three months into Mr. Trump’s presidency, he appears in no rush to schedule a meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission; Mr. Trump has said several times in recent weeks he believes the European Union was created to “screw” the United States.
As he greeted Ms. Meloni, Mr. Trump said that “there’ll be a trade deal, 100 percent” with the European Union before the end of the 90-day pause on some tariffs.
Administration officials, briefing reporters ahead of the meeting, said they believed that the Italian prime minister could be a conduit to the rest of Europe. The conversation was scheduled to begin with an elaborate lunch, also attended by Vice President JD Vance, whose one trip to Europe since taking office seemed to embrace Germany’s right-wing party and, by extension, similar political movements elsewhere in Europe.
While Mr. Trump has heaped praise on Ms. Meloni, Italy isn’t 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 those 3,500 Ferraris sold in the U.S. each year. (If you can afford the $250,000 base price, the 25 percent Trump tariff on imported autos may not be a deterrent.)
And though NATO countries agreed a decade ago that all members would spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product on defense, Italy has yet to hit 1.5 percent, putting it among the eight laggards in the alliance who have not met the pledge.
The Japanese left the White House on Wednesday without a deal, after discussing tariffs on autos and auto parts, and the range of electronics, computers and specialty gear that flows into the United States from the world’s fourth largest economy. Mr. Trump, though, said they were getting closer.
Ms. Meloni likely won’t emerge with one either. But it is all part of the face-to-face sessions with the one man who, by whim, can raise or lower tariffs, or suspend them, or threaten to reimpose them — all of which he did last week.Show less
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy has put forward the idea of organizing a U.S.-European meeting in Italy at a time when top European Union officials are struggling to get meetings with their American counterparts.
President Trump voiced his appreciation for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as he greeted her at the White House, calling her “one of the real leaders of the world,” and saying he liked her “very much.” For her part, Meloni said that she could not make a deal in the name of the European Union, but she would like to invite Trump on an official visit to Italy for meetings with herself and perhaps other European officials. “I think the best way is that we simply speak frankly about the needs that every one of us has,” she said.
Before a White House lunch with Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, President Trump predicted the United States would reach a trade agreement with the European Union before the high tariffs he threatened to impose in April go into effect in three months. “There’ll be a trade deal, 100 percent,” he said. Despite his optimism, little progress has been made in negotiations so far.
Reporter: “What if there is not a trade deal with the E.U. by the time of the end of your 90-day pause?” “Oh, there will be a trade deal, 100 percent. Why, you think there won’t be? Of course, there will a trade deal. Very much — they want to make one very, very much. And we’re going to make a trade deal. I fully expect it, but it will be a fair deal.” “Are they on your priority list?” “Everybody’s on my priority list.”
No comments:
Post a Comment