Secretary of State Marco Rubio will head to Rome and Vatican City on Wednesday to speak with leaders for bilateral talks, the State Department announced.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome, Italy May 6-8 to advance bilateral relations with Italy and the Vatican. Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
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Rubio’s three-day visit with the Holy See and Italian leadership comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s public feud with Pope Leo XIV over the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. While the pope has preached an anti-war message, condemning “the demonic cycle of evil” behind the Iran conflict in mid-April, Trump slammed the pontiff as “terrible for Foreign Policy.”
But while the media buzz over the public spat with the pope has diminished, Trump’s disappointment with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other European leaders has festered over their lack of support for the war with Iran, which is currently at a ceasefire. Trump threatened on Thursday to withdraw American troops from Italy and Spain over their leaders’ stances on the Iran war.
“Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment,” Pigott said in the statement.
Meloni, who was one of Trump’s closest European allies at the start of his term, broke with the president during his spat with the pope, to Trump’s disappointment.
“I find President Trump’s words regarding the Holy Father to be unacceptable. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he should call for peace and condemn all forms of war,” Meloni said in an April statement.
TRUMP LOSING HIS POPULIST FOOTHOLD IN EUROPE AS MELONI FRIENDSHIP SOURS AND ORBAN GETS OUSTED
Trump, following Meloni’s statement, then questioned whether the Italian prime minister “had courage,” told reporters on Thursday that he was considering drawing back troops in Italy and Spain in addition to Germany.
“Italy has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible,” Trump said. “When we needed them, they were not there. We have to remember that.”
