Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri attend Christmas Eve Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, December 24, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
President Donald Trump's return to the White House was once hailed as a shot in the arm to the global right-wing movement, but now, a report from Politico has revealed that he is becoming a lead weight on one of his biggest European allies.
Giorgia Meloni is an Italian politician often described as far-right with past connections to neo-fascist groups, and since 2022, she has been Italy's prime minister, making her one of the most prominent right-wing leaders in the world. She is also a staunch ally of Trump and his MAGA movement, no matter how unpopular he has become all across the world, particularly in Europe.
According to a new report from Politico, however, Trump's toxicity might finally be sinking in for Meloni, as "pressure builds" on her to cut ties with the American president to save her prime ministership ahead of Italy's elections next year. Meloni's support for Trump amid the disastrous Iran war is at the heart of the issue, per the report, as she "can no longer afford" the price of loyalty to the U.S., both politically and literally.
"[The] bills from the war in Iran are now coming due, and a weakening economy poses a grave threat to her electoral prospects in 2027," Politico explained. "Many Italian voters blame Trump for their households' soaring energy costs, and there is a growing political consensus that U.S. demands for increased military spending are simply unaffordable in Rome."
The report added: "Facing up to her domestic political and economic realities, the Italian leader has already started to pivot away from Trump, publicly criticizing him and blocking U.S. jets from access to an Italian airbase."
This pivot has, predictably, drawn a venomous reaction from Trump, who said in a phone interview from April that she was "no longer the same person" he once supported, after she criticized his attacks on Pope Leo XIV.
"I thought she was brave, but I was wrong," Trump said.
"But Meloni's big strategic headache is military spending — and it threatens to be the decisive make-or-break factor looming over the U.S.-Italian relationship," Politico continued. "Italy currently spends barely 2 percent of its economic output on defense, but Trump is pressing all NATO countries to raise that to 5 percent by 2035. Meloni has signed up to the 5 percent goal, but Italy's economy is creaking, and her opponents are quick to point out that Rome has more critical spending goals than Trump's demands for NATO."
Meloni's commitment to defense spending to appease Trump while her country suffers under skyrocketing energy costs "is becoming an increasingly tough sell."
"The NATO commitment to 5 percent is completely unrealistic for Italy," Antonio Misiani, a former deputy finance minister and a senator for Italy's center-left Democratic Party, told Politico. "For a year, Giorgia Meloni told us she was the bridge to Trump, but that bridge never existed, and now the chickens are coming home to roost."