ROME: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will go to Rome and the Vatican this week, an Italian authorities supply stated on Sunday (Might 3), simply weeks after a clash between Donald Trump and Pope Leo.
Rubio, who’s a Catholic, is anticipated to fulfill Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Italian International Minister Antonio Tajani, the supply instructed AFP.
Italian media reported that he would additionally meet Defence Minister Guido Crosetto throughout the Thursday-Friday go to.
The conferences come a number of weeks after US President Trump’s extraordinary criticism of Pope Leo XIV over the Catholic chief’s anti-war rhetoric.
Trump additionally dismissed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — one in every of his closest European allies — as missing braveness after she defended the US pontiff.
Italian media on Sunday offered Rubio’s go to as a gathering to “thaw” relations.
Since taking up as chief of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on Might 8, 2025, following the loss of life of Pope Francis, Leo has criticised the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
Nevertheless it was his growing anti-war rhetoric, notably following the US-Israeli assault on Iran, that triggered Trump’s ire.
Leo on April 7 declared Trump’s menace to destroy Iran “unacceptable” and urged People to demand that US lawmakers “work for peace”.
The US president subsequently slammed the pontiff in a social media submit as “WEAK on Crime, and horrible for International Coverage”.
Trump additionally stated he was “not a giant fan of Pope Leo” and that he doesn’t “desire a pope who thinks it is OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Meloni condemned as “unacceptable” Trump’s criticism — prompting the president to show his hearth on her.
“I am shocked at her. I assumed she had braveness, however I used to be improper,” the US president stated in an interview with Italian each day Corriere della Sera.
He additionally accused Meloni – a far-right chief who has sought to behave as a bridge between diverging US and European views – of failing to assist the US with NATO.
Trump has threatened to drag US troops from Italy, saying Rome “has not been of any assist to us” within the Iran conflict.
He has made an analogous menace in direction of Spain, whereas the Pentagon has introduced it’s withdrawing 5,000 US troops from Germany.
