Donald Trump has said there would “100 per cent” be a trade deal with the European Union, in a rare show of optimism about his relationship with Europe as he met Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the White House.
Meloni, who has forged a strong personal rapport with Trump, was in Washington on Thursday to try to head off any escalation of the US president’s trade war and tariffs on the EU.
“Oh there’ll be a trade deal, 100 per cent,” Trump said, referring to the single market. “They want to make one very much, and we’re going to make a trade deal, I fully expect it and it’ll be a fair trade deal.”
Trump’s comments marked a shift in tone after he and his top advisers have disparaged the EU as “pathetic”, while accusing the bloc of “ripping off” the US.
Meloni also struck a note of confidence about the progress on talks to strike a deal, just over two weeks after Trump announced tariffs on trading partners including the EU.
“I’m sure we can make a deal and I’m here to help on that,” said Meloni, who has urged Brussels not to escalate the trade war, but to negotiate instead.
She also said Trump had agreed to visit Italy, and that she would try to arrange for him to meet other European leaders during his trip.
“The goal for me is to make the west great again — and I think together we can do it,” she said, citing their common “fight against woke ideology”.
Trump showered praise on Meloni, calling her “a great talent” and “one of the real leaders of the world”.
But the US president has refused to engage with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, with whom Meloni was in close contact ahead her trip.
EU and US officials began talks this week about Trump’s tariffs on imports from the block, which are now set at 25 per cent on steel, aluminium and cars, and at 10 per cent on all other exports.
Washington has threatened to reinstate a 20 per cent tariff on imports from the EU within 90 days if the talks fail.
However, EU trade negotiators have complained they were not presented with the US’s demands, something officials hope the Italian leader can clarify.
Meloni “has an advantage on the EU mediators — she is talking to the decider”, said Stefano Stefanini, Italy’s former ambassador to Nato.
He said her meeting with Trump could be useful for the EU to find out what he wanted. “The US trade representative doesn’t really know [that]“, Stefanini added.
“When you engage Trump on the basis of ‘national interest’, that’s his favourite language,” Stefanini said. “He might not give in, but it is something that he understands. If you talk to him about transatlantic solidarity, that is a waste of time.”
Senior US officials said ahead of the meeting that Trump would discuss defence spending, as well as Italy’s digital services tax, which trade officials argue discriminates against US companies.
“President Trump is clear to all leaders around the world when it comes to trade, his expectation is policies . . . that recognise a true partnership and give access to world’s markets on behalf of the American manufacturing,” an official said.
“We’re open, we’re available, we’re ready to make deals with countries that take this seriously,” he added.
But Trump on Thursday also boasted of the income generated by his tariffs. “We’re making a lot of money, we’re taking a lot of money,” Trump said. “We’re taking in billions, and billions of dollars.”
The US is Italy’s second-largest export market, and tariffs would put further pressure on Italy’s already sluggish economic growth. “We know we are in a difficult moment,” Meloni said ahead of her trip. “We will do our best, as always.”
Meloni indicated at the White House that Italy would buy more LNG from the US, Italian companies would invest up to €10bn in the country, and Rome would soon announce that it was fulfilling its Nato commitment to spend up to 2 per cent of GDP on defence.
Trump gave little public hint of his demands of the EU in exchange for rolling back the tariffs. “I am not a big fan of Europe and what they’ve done with immigration,” he said. “They’ve got to get smart.”
Stefanini said Washington could press for Europe to further distance itself from China. “If the EU makes a deal with the US, it will be forced to further de-risk or decouple from China as a consequence. It’s either China or the US.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping has hoped to capitalise on Brussels trade tensions Washington, suggesting China and the EU should “jointly resist unilateral bullying”. But Meloni has long been wary of China, which she views as a strategic rival of the west, and in 2023 she formally withdrew Italy from Xi’s flagship Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
While some EU member states are irked by Italy’s soft stand on retaliatory tariffs, officials in Brussels officials supported her trip. “We are aware that she has a relationship with Trump and that can be valuable,” said one diplomat.
Lucio Malan, a senator from Meloni’s rightwing Brothers of Italy party, said Meloni showed “courage” by talking directly to Trump, given that trade policy is Brussels’ competence.
“It would have been simpler to stay home, and say ‘after all, it’s EU business’,” Malan said. But Meloni has “chosen another way”.
Additional reporting by Andy Bounds in Brussels
