{"id":14265,"date":"2026-05-08T20:25:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/14265\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:25:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:25:32","slug":"rubio-meets-meloni-as-u-s-italy-relations-strained-and-trumps-attacks-on-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/14265\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio Meets Meloni as U.S.-Italy Relations Strained and Trump\u2019s Attacks on Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

For weeks, the Trump administration has been locked in an increasingly antagonistic dispute with both Pope Leo XIV and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy \u2014 first over the war in Iran, and then over President Trump\u2019s attacks on the pontiff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged from two days of meetings in Rome \u2014 first with Leo on Thursday<\/a> and then a day later with Ms. Meloni \u2014 to signal something of a truce.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rubio, in remarks to reporters on Friday, described a \u201cvery positive\u201d encounter with the pope, calling it \u201ca very cordial, important meeting,\u201d in which he shared \u201cour points of view, and an explanation, and an understanding of where we\u2019re coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

He struck a similar tone about the meeting with Ms. Meloni, later saying on social media<\/a> that he had a \u201cGreat meeting with Italian Prime Minister Meloni in Rome to reinforce the enduring U.S.-Italy strategic partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Rubio\u2019s conciliation was the latest example of how the secretary, seen in Europe as the most diplomatic face of the Trump administration, has been dispatched to the continent to smooth feathers ruffled by the president. In February, Mr. Rubio attended the Munich Security Conference, calming European nerves<\/a> after Mr. Trump had threatened to use force to capture Greenland<\/a>, the territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Rome on Friday, Mr. Rubio had a similar role, professing his strong support for NATO and the broader trans-Atlantic alliance while playing down Mr. Trump\u2019s recent decision to withdraw troops from Germany. \u201cThere was always a plan to do some shifting within NATO,\u201d Mr. Rubio said, adding that the troops slated for withdrawal from Germany \u201crepresent less than 14 percent of our total troop presence there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Meloni also took a fence-mending approach, saying later on social media that she and Mr. Rubio \u201chad a broad and constructive discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, both she and Mr. Rubio signaled continuing differences between the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n

Ms. Meloni described their meeting as a \u201cfrank dialogue, between allies who defend their own national interests but who both know how precious Western unity is.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Mr. Rubio said that the administration would still be reconsidering American troop deployments elsewhere in Europe because some countries \u2014 he specifically named Spain \u2014 \u201cdenied us the use of those bases\u201d for attacks on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also urged Italy, along with other countries in Europe, to decide how to respond to Iran\u2019s closure of the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a key maritime trade route, currently blocked by Iran, that Mr. Trump wants European leaders to help reopen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran now claims that they own, that they have a right to control, an international waterway,\u201d Mr. Rubio said. \u201cWhat is the world going to do about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by a reporter if he would advise Mr. Trump to tone down his attacks on the pope, Mr. Rubio said that doing so was not his job. \u201cWhy would I tell you what I\u2019m going to recommend to the president?\u201d he said. \u201cThe president will always speak freely about how he feels about the U.S. and U.S. policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Rubio spent more than an hour in talks with Ms. Meloni, who was considered, until the United States attacked Iran, to be among the president\u2019s strongest allies in Europe.<\/p>\n

With the war deeply unpopular in Italy, Ms. Meloni distanced herself from Mr. Trump and declined to participate in the American-led attacks. She then called Mr. Trump\u2019s broadsides<\/a> against the pope \u201cunacceptable<\/a>,\u201d and the U.S. president, who had previously praised Ms. Meloni\u2019s leadership, retorted that she was the one who was unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought she was brave, but I was wrong,\u201d he said in an interview with an Italian newspaper. Mr. Trump has also suggested that he was considering troop withdrawals in Italy.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rubio said that he did not discuss specific troop movements with Ms. Meloni. \u201cThat\u2019s the decision for the president to make,\u201d the secretary said. \u201cHis team and people like myself and others will provide him with what those potential options are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Rubio added, \u201cHe hasn\u2019t made those decisions yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonio Tajani, the Italian foreign minister, also met Mr. Rubio on Friday, and subsequently signaled that the Italian government was also seeking to move on from the clash with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cItaly and the United States are united by an indissoluble bond, also supported by the Italian-American community,\u201d Mr. Tajani said in a social media post, after bestowing Mr. Rubio with a family tree tracing his Italian heritage.<\/p>\n

Mr. Tajani added that Italy was willing to contribute to a postwar mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz. For months, Ms. Meloni\u2019s previously vaunted friendship with Mr. Trump has become a liability<\/a> for her in Italy. <\/p>\n

First, the prime minister struggled to contain a growing backlash after Mr. Trump threatened tariffs on Italian agricultural products. Then the fallout from the Iran war, which has pushed up energy prices across Europe, further turned the Italian public against the U.S. administration.<\/p>\n

With polls showing that most Italians are opposed to the military campaign, Ms. Meloni emphasized that \u201cwe are not at war, and we do not want to go to war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josephine de La Bruy\u00e8re and Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For weeks, the Trump administration has been locked in an increasingly antagonistic dispute with both Pope Leo XIV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[241,6501,5,9717,184,3907,8967,7193,341,6504,3914],"class_list":{"0":"post-14265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-giorgia-1977","10":"tag-italy","11":"tag-marco","12":"tag-meloni","13":"tag-rome-italy","14":"tag-rubio","15":"tag-state-department","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-international-relations","18":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14265","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=14265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}