For international leaders, visiting the White House these days is an unpredictable undertaking that comes with a risk of being embarrassed, or worse, berated, by President Trump. For Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Thursday’s meeting in the Oval Office was largely a smooth affair, with Mr. Trump covering her in hyperbolic praise and making clear he is fond of her.
But beyond the friendly anti-immigration banter, and shared optimism that the European Union and the United States would reach a trade deal, neither leader indicated that they had made substantial progress on negotiations over tariffs and other issues.
“We’re in no rush,” Mr. Trump said.
Ms. Meloni was the first European leader to visit the White House since Mr. Trump imposed and then partly paused sweeping tariffs against the European Union. The meeting dispelled any remaining doubts on the special relationship between the two leaders. But what the rapport could yield for Italy and for Europe remained unclear.
“She was treated like a first-rank ally,” said Lorenzo Castellani, a political scientist at Luiss Guido Carli university in Rome, adding that it was unusual for Italy, which is not a military or economic powerhouse.
“She became a de facto mediator,” he said, “but in concrete terms, she did not bring anything home.”
The European countries’ trade policy is conducted collectively through the European Union, and Ms. Meloni was clear that she could not look for a deal on the bloc’s behalf. Perhaps her biggest achievement: Mr. Trump accepted her invitation for a visit in the “near future” to Rome, where she hoped he would meet with European officials.
If that happens, it could help cement her position as a conduit between Europe and Washington. For now, though, as she said, Mr. Trump had offered no guarantee that he would meet with European officials.
Ms. Meloni sought to bond with Mr. Trump over their aversion both to ideology that they consider “woke,” and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. She also committed to increase imports of American gas and bolster military spending, key elements of Mr. Trump’s agenda. She dismissed a question about Mr. Trump’s disparaging of Europe as “a parasite” living off the United States.
“Have you ever said that?” she asked the president. “He never said that.”
On Friday, in Rome, Ms. Meloni re-emphasized the U.S.-Europe relationship, describing it as “privileged” as she met with Vice President JD Vance, who has traveled there for Easter.
When meeting with Mr. Trump, she did not — as some had feared she would — turn her back on Ukraine, repeating her position that “the invader was Putin and Russia.”
On Thursday, in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron of France, who has also established a cooperative relationship with Mr. Trump despite bigger ideological differences, held talks with U.S. officials about the war. After the meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would abandon efforts to end the war in Ukraine if it proves impossible to broker meaningful progress in the next several days.
At his meeting with Ms. Meloni, Mr. Trump said that “Europe is very important to me,” and that he wanted “Europe to do very well,” a difference in tone from when he said the European Union was created to “screw” the United States.
Ms. Meloni’s fans credited the prime minister.
Carlo Fidanza, the head of Ms. Meloni’s delegation in the European Parliament, called the meeting “the first time Trump makes himself so clearly available to a deal with the European Union.” That, he said “we owe” to Ms. Meloni.
But even as Mr. Trump sat by Ms. Meloni and called her a friend, he asserted his intention to forcefully impose tariffs on his trading partners.
“Everybody wants to make a deal and if they don’t want to make a deal, we’ll make the deal for them,” Mr. Trump said.
“We’re the one that really sets the deal,” he added, “and that’s what we’ll be doing.”
Ms. Meloni’s critics urged her to turn the pleasantries into actual concessions.
“Big smiles at the White House: we hope that our businesses can also smile again,” Matteo Renzi, Italy’s former prime minister and an opposition politician, said in a statement. “For them, at the moment, tariffs and uncertainty remain.”
In Brussels, officials, consumer groups and politicians have spent weeks trying to figure out whether the Trump administration is truly interested in making a deal — and they have been left with little clarity. Much of the time, European officials say, they do not even know if they are talking to the right people in the administration while trying to negotiate.
What happens next “is up to the U.S.,” said Léa Auffret, the head of international affairs for BEUC, the European Consumer Organization.
At home in Italy, Mr. Trump’s warmth toward Ms. Meloni helped her in her rivalry with coalition partners to her right, including the leader of the far-right League party, Matteo Salvini, who have courted Mr. Trump and his allies, experts said.
“Domestically, it was a good success,” said Enzo Moavero Milanesi, an Italian former foreign minister. “For Europe: Let’s see.”
Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Brussels.
