In town pool report #2

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived as promised at noon, in a black SUV, flying the Italian and US flags. A military honor guard of dozens held flags along the pebble beach driveway to greet Meloni. Trump greeted her at the door, over shouted questions about whether he could make a trade deal.

Your pooler heard Trump say Meloni was a “great person.” Another pool reporter heard him say he was "very confident” in response to a question about whether a trade deal was possible.

The pool was almost immediately ushered into the Cabinet Room for an unscheduled spray ahead of their lunch. Attendees included VP Vance (who had a light green soda poured before him), the president (who had a cola poured before him), Sec. Bessent, Sec. Hegseth, NSA Walz, who all had water, and one other American out of view. Still don’t have names of other Italians beyond the Prime Minister.

Both leaders expressed confidence that a trade deal would happen before the end of the 90-day pause. Meloni spoke about Italy’s plans to increase defense spending to 2 percent of GDP and making the West “stronger." (Asked if that was enough, Trump smiled and said it was "never enough.") “I’m sure we can make a deal, and I am here to help with that.” She also said she planned to invite Trump to Italy for a meeting with other European allies. Trump expressed confidence in a deal with China as well.

Otter here: https://otter.ai/u/AU2A75-ASbMxx-Qz1zBd3arjj0s?utm_source=copy_url It appears to cut off at end, a failure by your pooler apparently.

Expecting pool to be called back after lunch to Oval for more questions.

Correcting typo in first pool report: Lunch was scheduled for 12:05 p.m., not 12:05 a.m. Apologies.

Michael Scherer

The Atlantic

XXX-XXX-XXXX cell