Melodic Italian bolsters Meloni in talks with Trump and Vance

By Crispian Balmer

ROME (Reuters) -The Italian language proved a secret weapon for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as she launched a charm offensive with U.S. President Donald Trump and his deputy JD Vance in back-to-back transatlantic meetings.

Meloni met both Trump and Vance at the White House on Thursday before heading straight home to Italy. Vance also left Washington after the talks to spend the Easter holidays in Rome.

During a crowded joint press conference in the Oval Office, Trump gushed about Italian when Meloni addressed travelling journalists in her native language.

"That was so beautiful! What the hell did you say?" Trump said after she had answered a question on the war in Ukraine, notably contradicting the U.S. leader, who has suggested Ukraine's president was to blame for the Russian invasion.

Following his arrival in Rome with his family, Vance had lunch with Meloni and listened on as she released a message in Italian, hailing Thursday's talks as "fantastic" and saying there was a "privileged relationship" between their two nations.

"Prime Minister Meloni, it's wonderful to see you again, and I hope that's exactly what you said. Of course she could have called me a jerk and I wouldn't know, but it would be in the most beautiful language imaginable, so I wouldn't even get offended," he said to laughter.

Trump has repeatedly criticised the European Union, saying the bloc was created to "screw" the United States. But he has a warm relationship with the national conservative Meloni, who was the only EU leader he invited to his inauguration in January.

Looking to cement her position as a favoured partner, Meloni told reporters in the Oval Office that she supported Trump's fight against diversity and inclusion and woke "ideology". 

She also promised to buy more U.S. gas and said she wanted Italian companies to invest more in the United States, hoping that this might help convince the U.S. president to reduce, or even eliminate threatened tariffs on Italian and EU imports.

In addition, she invited Trump to visit Rome, saying this could be an opportunity for him to meet other European leaders who he has so far shunned. He accepted the offer, but no date was set.

Trump has made clear his distaste of other world leaders, so far snubbing the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a public dressing down in the White House in February.

But he seemed eager to show he had some friends in the world, by showering a smiling Meloni with praise.

"Everyone loves and respects her, and I can't say that about many people," he said on Thursday. "I would say that she has taken Europe by storm."

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Alvise Armellini in Rome and Angelo Amante in Washington; Editing by Andrew Heavens)