Rubio Signals Truce With Pope and Meloni After They Clashed With Trump

ROME -- 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 -- first over the war in Iran and then over President Donald Trump's attacks on the pontiff.

On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged from two days of meetings in Rome -- first with Leo on Thursday and then a day later with Meloni -- to signal something of a truce.

Rubio, in remarks to reporters Friday, described a "very positive" encounter with the pope, calling it "a very cordial, important meeting," in which he shared "our points of view, and an explanation, and an understanding of where we're coming from."

He struck a similar tone about the meeting with Meloni, later saying on social media that he had a "Great meeting with Italian Prime Minister Meloni in Rome to reinforce the enduring U.S.-Italy strategic partnership."

Rubio's 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, Rubio attended the Munich Security Conference, calming European nerves after Trump had threatened to use force to capture Greenland, the territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.

Speaking in Rome on Friday, Rubio had a similar role, professing his strong support for NATO and the broader trans-Atlantic alliance while playing down Trump's recent decision to withdraw troops from Germany. "There was always a plan to do some shifting within NATO," Rubio said, adding that the troops slated for withdrawal from Germany "represent less than 14% of our total troop presence there."

Meloni also took a fence-mending approach, saying later on social media that she and Rubio "had a broad and constructive discussion."

Still, both she and Rubio signaled continuing differences between the United States and Europe.

Meloni described their meeting as a "frank dialogue, between allies who defend their own national interests but who both know how precious Western unity is."

And Rubio said that the administration would still be reconsidering U.S. troop deployments elsewhere in Europe because some countries -- he specifically named Spain -- "denied us the use of those bases" for attacks on Iran.

He also urged Italy, along with other countries in Europe, to decide how to respond to Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz -- a key maritime trade route, currently blocked by Iran, that Trump wants European leaders to help reopen.

"Iran now claims that they own, that they have a right to control, an international waterway," Rubio said. "What is the world going to do about that?"

Asked by a reporter if he would advise Trump to tone down his attacks on the pope, Rubio said that doing so was not his job. "Why would I tell you what I'm going to recommend to the president?" he said. "The president will always speak freely about how he feels about the U.S. and U.S. policy."

Rubio spent more than an hour in talks with Meloni, who was considered, until the United States attacked Iran, to be among the president's strongest allies in Europe.

With the war deeply unpopular in Italy, Meloni distanced herself from Trump and declined to participate in the U.S.-led attacks. She then called Trump's broadsides against the pope "unacceptable," and the U.S. president, who had previously praised Meloni's leadership, retorted that she was the one who was unacceptable.

"I thought she was brave, but I was wrong," he said in an interview with an Italian newspaper. Trump has also suggested that he was considering troop withdrawals in Italy.

Rubio said that he did not discuss specific troop movements with Meloni. "That's the decision for the president to make," the secretary said. "His team and people like myself and others will provide him with what those potential options are."

Rubio added, "He hasn't made those decisions yet."

Antonio Tajani, the Italian foreign minister, also met Rubio on Friday and subsequently signaled that the Italian government was also seeking to move on from the clash with Trump.

"Italy and the United States are united by an indissoluble bond, also supported by the Italian-American community," Tajani said in a social media post, after bestowing Rubio with a family tree tracing his Italian heritage.

Tajani added that Italy was willing to contribute to a postwar mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz. For months, Meloni's previously vaunted friendship with Trump has become a liability for her in Italy.

First, the prime minister struggled to contain a growing backlash after 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.

With polls showing that most Italians are opposed to the military campaign, Meloni emphasized that "we are not at war, and we do not want to go to war."

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 8:27 AM.