Divorce, Italian style: Is Meloni-Trump row bringing Europe closer together?
About this episode
The episode discusses the tensions between Italy and the US, particularly focusing on Giorgia Meloni's relationship with Donald Trump and the implications for European politics.
Has Trump whispering run its course? Ask the now departing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who famously brought that letter of invitation from the king to the Oval Office, or Hungary’s ousted leader Viktor Orban. And how about the very public breakup with the only European leader invited to Donald Trump's second inauguration last year? Beyond the spat over whether Italy's Giorgia Meloni begged the US president for a selfie at last week's G7 summit, there's a growing divide between Rome and Washington over trade, Ukraine, Greenland, Israel, Lebanon and the war in Iran. On that score, some still stick to Trump whispering, like the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte , who before a show-and-tell display of flattery in the Oval Office told Fox News that Italy had allowed "500 US planes" to take off from bases as part of Operation Epic Fury. We ask if the Italian prime minister lied about her refusal to actively take part in the campaign against Iran and, more broadly, about Meloni's tack towards the pro-EU mainstream – patching up sometimes testy relations with neighbour France and getting a red carpet welcome this Thursday from Emmanuel Macron at an overdue bilateral summit in…
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