For Trump administration, all roads really do lead to Rome – at least at the moment

For the Trump administration, all roads really do lead to Rome – at least at the moment.

On Sunday, Vice-President JD Vance concluded a three-day visit to the Italian capital, where he met with Italy’s pro-Trump prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, as well as senior Vatican officials including (very briefly) Pope Francis.

The day before, senior Trump envoy Steve Witkoff was in Rome for the second round of nuclear talks with Iran. The discussions were seen as a success, laying the groundwork for technical negotiations next week in Oman. But a concrete agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program still seems far off.

But the big news came a few days earlier when Italy’s Meloni – then in Washington for her third face-to-face meeting with Trump this year – invited the president to Rome to discuss and perhaps renegotiate the U.S.’s fast-changing tariff policy toward the European Union.

“The goal for me is to make the West great again,” Meloni said, earning high praise from Trump, who called her “a friend” who had “taken Europe by storm.”

Details about the timing of Trump’s visit to Italy were not released, though Italian media said it would take place “soon.”

It can’t come soon enough for Meloni and other European leaders, who have seen their economies battered by the White House’s initial tariffs: Stock markets have been more volatile than at any time since the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic and government bond yields have climbed.

The euro currency has also rallied against the dollar in recent weeks, another factor adding to the higher price for European products sold in America beyond the United States' blanket 10% excise on all imports and the higher 25% tax on important steel, aluminum and cars.

The base tariff rate on European products is set to double to 20% in early July, when Trump’s 90-day pause is set to expire.

While Meloni was in Washington, Trump said he was sure a deal on tariffs was within reach.

“There will be a trade deal, 100 percent,” Trump said. “Of course there will be a trade deal. They want to make one very much, and we’re going to make a trade deal. I fully expect it, but it’ll be a fair trade deal.”

Meloni predicted the meeting between Trump and European leaders in Rome will play a key role.

“We can find common ground,” the Italian leader said. “I think we need to talk frankly and meet halfway.”

Still, the Trump administration's best western European ally appears to be Italy.

 To be sure, Trump's White House meeting in February with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is widely considered to have been productive and successful. But French President Emmanuel Macron's liberal policies are not exactly in step with Trump's, despite Macron's new government, which he unveiled this past fall, marking a decisive shift to the right. 

At the Vatican, Vance, who is Catholic, was all but snubbed by Pope Francis. The pontiff, who is recovering from a serious respiratory illness, consented to what amounted to a minutes-long courtesy visit with Vance. Vance's trip to Rome had garnered (now) false hope they would reach some type of informal agreement – or at least acceptance – over the Trump's illegal immigration crackdown that Francis has said places such migrants "in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness."

In lieu of a substantive discussion this past weekend with Vance, Francis dispatched the Vatican’s top diplomats, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, to lecture Vance on the importance of charity and aid and the treatment of refugees and prisoners.

There were smatterings of protests at many of Vance’s stops in the Italian capital and graffiti ranging from “Vance go home” to one poking fun at the vice president’s apparent penchant for wearing eyeliner. The Italian media also took a few swipes at Vance.

But Vance appeared to take it all in good humor. He voiced a hearty laugh when on greeting him Meloni said, “I’ve been missing you” (the two had seen each other a day earlier in Washington). Vance also followed Meloni’s Italian-language remarks with a quip about the splendor of the Italian language.

“You could have called me a jerk and I wouldn’t know,” Vance said. “But it would be in the most beautiful language imaginable, so I wouldn’t even be offended.”