The United States’ announcement that it will withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany and the threats aimed in the same direction at Italy and Spain last week have raised doubts about the future of the roughly 12,000 US military personnel stationed on Italian soil and led Giorgia Meloni to schedule a meeting on Friday with Marco Rubio, after the visit on Thursday by the US Secretary of State to Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican.
The privileged relationship between the Italian prime minister and the US president since his return to the White House fell into crisis rapidly last month, after Meloni described as unacceptable Donald Trump’s accusations of “weakness” directed at the Pontiff and he in turn accused her of a lack of courage for not having helped his ally in the war against Iran.
