Few have noticed yet, but Georgia Maloney looks set to do so Donald Trump’s main point of contact in Europe – mostly thanks to her close friendship with Elon Musk. The relationship between Trump and Meloni, through Musk, could become very special indeed. In particular, it may turn out to be crucial for what is happening in Ukraine.
They may not be in love with each other, according to the recently released rumor orgy – but Musk and Meloni are in love with each other’s ideas. The tech mogul backed Trump’s campaign with over $120 million, plus his vital support for state funding cuts. This is something he has become notorious for in his own businesses. At X, for example, he fired half the staff after buying the site in 2022. It is said that at SpaceX for $50,000 he can do things that Nasa can do for only $500,000.
During his Mar-a-Lago victory speech, Trump praised the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, saying, among other things, “I love you Elon Musk” and “We have a new star, a star is born, Elon”
Less well known than Musk’s support for Trump is his immense admiration for her Italy’s first female prime minister. She is undoubtedly his favorite European leader and has twice been her guest in Rome. As soon as Meloni hung up on Trump to congratulate him on his election victory — her team said she was the first European leader to speak to him — she answered Musk.
The Italian Prime Minister and the US President-elect, according to her official statement, “expressed the desire to work together in close coordination on all major international issues, starting with Ukraine.” Of her subsequent phone call with Musk, she said on social media: “In the last few hours I spoke with my friend Elon Musk. I am convinced that his dedication and vision can become an important resource for the United States and Italy.” He told reporters he had “added value” and done “excellent things”. What “great things” will Musk do for Trump? It looks like it won’t just deal with government costs
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called to congratulate Trump on his election victory last Wednesday, Musk was still with the President-elect at Mar-a-Lago and joined the conversation. Musk has been closely involved with Ukraine since 2022, when provided the country with its Starlink Internet system for free – which is widely seen as vital to its ability to stand up to the Russians.
However, he later complained about the cost that led to Joe Biden’s White House taking over. And he is increasingly questioning the point of continued resistance from Ukraine. Ukraine has, it believes, no hope of ever expelling the Russians from its soil – so why continue the sacrifice? Trump didn’t say anything specific, except that if elected will end the war “on day one”, which is widely believed to mean he will try to force Ukraine to cede territory in exchange for peace.
So what about Meloni? Unlike Trump and Musk, he was and remains one of the staunchest supporters of sending arms to Ukraine. But more than anyone else in Europe could influence Trump and Musk. Generally, however, Trump and Meloni are on the same page as right-wing populists or nationalists.
As Andrea Di Giuseppe, who represents the Italian Brothers party in America, told the news site Politico: “When it comes to working with Trump, she is the only conservative among the founding members of the EU and the major economies in Europe and her approach is very similar to Trump’s».
In Musk, he now has the most powerful intercessor imaginable. Just in September, they sat next to each other at a gala dinner in Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom at which she was awarded this year’s Global Citizen Award by the Atlantic Council think tank. Both of them are currently alone and a photo of her looking at him at dinner as if enchanted went viral and prompted the New York Post to talk about a “very public love.”
Musk has since later been forced to deny any romantic relationship through X. They may not be in love with each other, but they are in love with each other’s ideas. In his speech, Musk told the 700 guests attending the dinner that Meloni was “even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside.” In her speech, Meloni in turn said that Musk is a “precious genius.”
What binds them above all else is their belief that the West will die unless it reverses demographic trends. The population of Italy – for example – it has fallen by more than a million to 59.3 million since 2014. At the same time around one million migrants have reached Italy by sea. The fertility rate in Italy, a country once famous for having a lot of babies and being mom-dominated, is one of the lowest in the world at 1.3 (2.1 is the replacement rate). Things are not much better elsewhere in Europe.
Musk approves 100% of Meloni’s strategy to prevent irregular migrants from bribing African countries such as Tunisia to prevent them from crossing the Mediterranean. He is adamant like her that immigrants are not the answer to demographic collapse.
He also supports Meloni’s new plan to divert migrants to Albania from safe countries such as Bangladesh – Italy’s main source of migrants. The program, which began in October, was halted by Italian judges, who refuse to allow them to be detained in Albania on the grounds that countries such as Bangladesh are not 100% safe.
On Tuesday (12/11), Musk tweeted at X that “these judges need to go,” and in a follow-up tweet on Wednesday, he said: “This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?’
In the two years since her election, Meloni has become not only the top political leader of the European right, but also the top leader in the European Union, especially now that Emmanuel Macron is demobilized and Olaf Solz’s government has collapsed. Her relationship with Musk and Trump it could well end up shaping the future of Europe in the coming years.
