After Trump was elected as US president for the second time in late 2024, Meloni\u2019s ties with the American far-right suddenly became a matter of foreign policy. But her relationship with Trump has turned out to be a more demanding balancing act than Meloni may have anticipated. And now their alliance \u2013 at least for the time being \u2013 appears to be over<\/a>. <\/p>\n On April 13 Meloni described Trump\u2019s recent social media attack on Pope Leo, who had criticised the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran, as \u201cunacceptable\u201d. This prompted a rebuke from Trump, who said Meloni \u201clacked courage\u201d<\/a> for not joining the war. The conditions for this breakdown have been in place for some time.<\/p>\n Trump and Meloni\u2019s shared far-right traits should not hide some key differences between the two leaders. In foreign policy, Meloni has adopted a pro-Nato position and is a staunch supporter of Ukraine. These positions have aided Meloni<\/a> in what has been called her quest for \u201crespectability\u201d, but they clash with Trump\u2019s lack of support for Ukraine and belligerent position towards Nato.<\/p>\n Politically, Meloni has also faced constraints that have moderated her leadership. Externally, the EU\u2019s institutional and financial straitjacket has required Meloni to work collaboratively with the bloc. This requirement has limited Meloni\u2019s room for manoeuvre in her dealings with Trump and clashes with the US president\u2019s rejection of multilateralism. <\/p>\n Internally, the logic of coalition politics \u2013 in particular the moderating presence<\/a> of the pro-European Forza Italia party in her government \u2013 and the fact that centrist voters represent a decisive constituency in Italy have both acted as a further centripetal force on Meloni\u2019s agenda. <\/p>\n Despite these divergences, Meloni\u2019s ideological closeness to Trump did initially translate into diplomatic gains that helped boost her profile with fellow EU leaders. She was the first EU leader to meet with Trump<\/a> after the imposition of his global trade tariff regime in 2025. <\/p>\n Meloni also managed to organise a trilateral meeting<\/a> in Rome with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the US vice-president, J.D. Vance. Following the meting, Vance called Meloni a \u201cbridge\u201d<\/a> between the two sides of the Atlantic. <\/p>\n Still, beyond the legitimacy gains for Meloni and her party, the material advantages Italy has extracted from her relationship with Trump have been limited. Italy was not spared trade tariffs<\/a>, for instance. Nor did it manage to obtain a discount on Trump\u2019s demand for<\/a> Nato members to raise military spending to 5% of their GDP.<\/p>\n The scarcity of tangible policy gains from her ties with Trump may be one reason for Meloni\u2019s decision to distance herself from the US president. But Italian domestic politics are another important factor<\/a>.<\/p>\n The indirect effects of Trump\u2019s policies are likely to have played a key role in the recent defeat Meloni suffered in a referendum on judicial reform<\/a>. This referendum, which came one month into Trump\u2019s war in Iran, morphed into a vote on the Meloni government.<\/p>\n The Iran war has caused energy prices across Europe to rise and has generated fears among Italians of possible security repercussions. With a recent survey indicating<\/a> 79% of Italians now hold a negative opinion on Trump, it seems that voters used the referendum to signal their discontent to Meloni ahead of general elections in 2027.<\/p>\n Opposition parties, both on the left and right, hailed the result as a sign that voters are looking for change. And Roberto Vannacci, a former general turned politician, is capitalising on voters\u2019 increased unease with the impact of Trump\u2019s policies. He has criticised Meloni for what he sees<\/a> as her Washington-first alignment and soft approach to key far-right issues. <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s attack on the Pope \u2013 indefensible for Meloni as someone who has defined herself as a Christian<\/a> and whose party draws on a vast Catholic electorate<\/a> \u2013 gave the Italian prime minister the exit she needed to signal her distance from Trump\u2019s recent actions to voters. <\/p>\n Meloni\u2019s agenda remains far-right in its orientation, aligning with Trump\u2019s in many ways from identity politics and migration to his stance on the green transition. How these ideological similarities are received by Italian voters over the coming year is likely to play a crucial role in determining Meloni\u2019s political future.<\/p>\n Margherita de Candia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Italian prime minister and leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, Giorgia Meloni, has made fostering ties with foreign leaders a central part of her political strategy. A few years before winning Italy\u2019s 2022 general elections, she started cultivating ties with the US and European conservative world as part of a broader political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Trump and Meloni\u2019s alliance<\/h2>\n
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