{"id":13463,"date":"2026-05-06T19:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/13463\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:08:08","slug":"rubios-rome-challenge-managing-an-ally-appealing-to-a-pope-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/13463\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio\u2019s Rome challenge: Managing an ally, appealing to a pope \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

And Crosetto said<\/a> at an event during Italy\u2019s Armed Forces Day that \u201cin a world that has gone crazy \u2026 it is our duty to ensure that Italy can defend itself,\u201d validating Trump\u2019s longstanding demand that NATO allies should do \u2014 and spend \u2014 more<\/a> to defend themselves.<\/p>\n

Meloni will try to convey alignment when she sits down with Rubio, including through increased defense spending, according to analyst Filippo Simonelli of the Rome-based Istituto Affari Internazionali think tank. And longer-term commitments offer a potential path to ease tensions without requiring immediate public concessions: Crosetto\u2019s meeting is a sign that something could move in that direction, Simonelli argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cItaly is not strictly necessary, but the U.S. is losing ground with allies, so reinforcing ties with a middle power may in the end be worth the effort,\u201d continued Simonelli. \u201cThey will likely try to find some meeting point and a path forward for cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is navigating a more complicated domestic landscape. | Simona Granati \u2013 Corbis\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the leaders of Meloni\u2019s coalition huddled ahead of Rubio\u2019s visit to coordinate strategy. From the Italian perspective, it also helps that the emissary is Rubio, viewed by many in Rome as closer to a pre-2016 Republican internationalist than figures like JD Vance<\/a>, widely seen in European capitals as hostile<\/a> to what they regard as freeloading allies.<\/p>\n

Rubio has also built goodwill with Rome through cooperation<\/a> with Tajani on Venezuela, including efforts to secure the release of detained Italians.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Meloni is navigating a more complicated domestic landscape. Since the war on Iran, public opinion in Italy has grown increasingly wary of Trump, limiting how far she can go in publicly embracing Washington. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And Crosetto said at an event during Italy\u2019s Armed Forces Day that \u201cin a world that has gone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1283,9921,1172,319,9922,325,2844,1217,1155,328,5,9215,7135,956,1140,9923,27,338,4040,1324,5083,341,182,9924,343],"class_list":{"0":"post-13463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rome","8":"tag-cars","9":"tag-cuba","10":"tag-defense","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-eu-us-military-ties","13":"tag-giorgia-meloni","14":"tag-global-economy","15":"tag-guido-crosetto","16":"tag-iran","17":"tag-italian-politics","18":"tag-italy","19":"tag-jd-vance","20":"tag-marco-rubio","21":"tag-middle-east","22":"tag-military","23":"tag-pete-hegseth","24":"tag-rome","25":"tag-security","26":"tag-tariffs","27":"tag-trade","28":"tag-transatlantic-relations","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-vatican","31":"tag-venezuela","32":"tag-war-in-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}