Foreign Pool Report #3 / Oval quotes of Meloni

When the pool entered at 1:42pm, Trump and Meloni were already sitting next to each other: Meloni on the left side, dressed in a white suit. She spoke almost 4 minutes in the beginning and thanked the President “for the warm welcome” and “this occasion, which is aim to strengthen our relation, our friendship”.

Meloni said, the US and Italy shared the fight against “woke“ ideology “that would erase our history.” She also told Trump that her goal is “to make the west great again” and they both share the goal of “fighting against illegal migration, fighting against synthetic drugs.”

According to Meloni, the two leaders also talked ”about many bilateral topics and things that we can do together, about defense, about economic, about space, about energy.”

She further said Italy would have to increase its LNG imports and in nuclear that we are trying to develop.” Italian enterprises would invest, “as they've been doing for many years, as you know, in the next years, I think around 10 million. That shows how interconnected our economies are”.

Meloni: “It's not only about Italy, it's about the entire Europe. The exchange between us is a very big one, investments, trade, it's a topic that we are discussing”.

“When I speak about West, mainly I don't speak about geographical space. I speak about the civilization, and I want to make that civilization stronger. So, I think even if we have some problems between the two shores of the Atlantic, is is the time that we try to sit down and find solutions”.

The PM said, President Trump “has accepted an invitation to pay an official visit to Rome in the near future and conceive the possibility in that location to meet also with Europe. The goal for me is to make the West great again, and I think we can do it together.”

Italy according to the PM is “in a very good situation, despite the difficulties, a stable country, really reliable country. 1 million more jobs in the last two years. Now, inflation is going down. So, you forgive me if I promote a bit my country, but you're a businessman and you understand me. So, migration flows going down 60%, so we are trying to do our best, but I think we can do it even better together (&).

On a question of an Italian colleague in Italian if Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is responsible for the war, Meloni interrupted the interpreter and answered herself. Your pooler could not understand what exactly.

On migration, Trump said, Europe would have “to get a lot smarter”, and Meloni answered: “We are beginning to do it”. Meloni: “In the beginning, we were only talking about how we were distributing illegal migrants coming to Italy. Now we are talking mainly about how to stop illegal migration”. So, “things are changing”.

Please as always check against transcript.

Meanwhile, Meloni has left the White House grounds.

PS: In the previous Foreign Pool Report, Meloni apparently does not say "needle" but "middle" in an Italian accent (thanks to my British colleague David Charter).

Juliane Schaeuble

US Correspondent

Der Tagesspiegel

Cell: +1-XXX-XXX-XXXX

@berlin_juliane

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