US President Donald Trump said he would "100%" reach a tariffs deal with the European Union as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia led a charm offensive at the White House.
Casting herself as the only European who can de-escalate President Trump's trade war with Europe, Ms Meloni highlighted her conservative common ground with the US leader.
"The goal for me is to make the West great again, and I think we can do it together," she told reporters in the Oval Office, highlighting shared views on immigration and "woke ideology".
Ms Meloni said President Trump had accepted an invitation to visit Rome in the "near future" and that he might also meet European leaders there.
The two leaders talked up the chances of a deal, one of a series that President Trump says he will extract from major trading partners over his world-shaking tariffs.
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"There will be a trade deal, 100%," President Trump said during an earlier working lunch with Ms Meloni, who said she was "sure" they could reach an agreement.
But in a sign of the potential challenges ahead, President Trump said that he was in "no rush" and that Ms Meloni had not changed his mind on his overall tariff policy.
"Everybody wants to make a deal -- and if they don't want to make a deal, we'll make the deal for them," President Trump added.
Ms Meloni was the only European leader to be invited to President Trump's 20 January inauguration, and US officials said she was "eye-to-eye with the president on a lot of issues like immigration and Ukraine".
President Trump said that Europe needed to "get a lot smarter" on immigration, returning to his administration's repeated attacks on the bloc on the subject.
'Zero for zero' formula
Ms Meloni has previously said the goal should be to eliminate so-called reciprocal duties on existing industrial products as part of a "zero for zero" formula, as floated by the European Commission earlier this month.
Italian newspapers reported that one of the goals of Meloni's visit was to pave the way for a meeting between President Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Ms Meloni's decision to personally intercede with Mr Trump has caused some disquiet among EU allies, concerned her visit could undermine the unity of the bloc.
"If we start having bilateral discussions, obviously it will break the current dynamic," France's Industry Minister Marc Ferracci warned last week.
A European Commission spokeswoman said that while the EU alone could negotiate trade agreements, Ms Meloni's "outreach is very welcome" and was coordinated with Brussels.
Following her meeting with Mr Trump, Ms Meloni will fly back to Rome tomorrow in time to host Mr Vance, with whom she has a meeting planned.
Mr Trump's threatened tariffs could have a major impact on Italy, the world's fourth-largest exporter, which sends around ten percent of its exports to the United States.
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