Meloni follows Milei in meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago as Biden prepares to travel to Rome

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had dinner with former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida on Tuesday.

Ms Meloni is the latest world leader to meet Mr Trump since his election victory in November.

She follows Argentina President Javier Milei, who became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago after his election victory.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary have also travelled to Florida to meet the president-elect.

Mr Trump appeared at a screening of a documentary detailing challenges some conservative lawyers report facing in the legal system.

Mr Trump told the crowd of Ms Meloni: “This is very exciting.”

“I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy. She’s really taken Europe by storm, and everyone else, and we’re just having dinner tonight.”

The president-elect watched a screening of the documentary with Ms Meloni and his pick for the incoming administration’s secretary of state, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, as well as Florida Representative Mike Waltz, Mr Trump’s choice for national security advisor and his nomination to head the Treasury Department, Scott Bessent.

Ms Meloni’s visit comes after Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was detained by Iranian police while reporting in Tehran late last month.

Ms Sala’s case has heightened tensions between Italy and Iran, which is demanding Italian authorities release an Iranian businessman who was arrested recently in Milan on a US warrant in connection with a drone attack in Jordan last year that killed three American troops.

President Joe Biden is set to travel to Rome to meet with Ms Meloni, as well as Pope Francis, from Thursday.

The White House says the meeting with Ms Meloni will “highlight the strength of the US-Italy relationship” and feature Mr Biden thanking the prime minister “for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year”.