Giorgia Meloni: “In the US, a losing left—unable to offer solutions—is attempting to seize power by using every means possible to overthrow someone who was elected and is achieving extraordinary results. The left is the same all over the world. Solidarity and support for Donald Trump and the American people.”
We are in 2019, and the future first post-fascist Italian prime minister is in the opposition.
Young Meloni and the American diplomac at work for the post Berlusconi era
Giorgia Meloni then at a pivotal point in her political career twitted out her support to Donald Trump, who in 2016 had become the 45th President of the United States over Hillary Clinton. Meloni was the leader of Fratelli d’Italia back in time, a party she had already envisioned when she was a young Minister of Youth in the Berlusconi government back in 2011, when—as documented and revealed in 2022—the ambitious young politician, the apparent heir to Gianfranco Fini (former leader of the party that preceded Fratelli d’Italia, Alleanza Nazionale)—was meeting with embassy officials in Rome, i.e., the United States intelligence services, to brief them on the post-Berlusconi era.
In 2011 Obama was at the head of the US administration but the country’s deep state never stopped working for its interests. That was the time when Meloni had been constantly railing against migrants and the civil rights alike, against a certain idea of Europe and when she struggled to view Italy as an anti-fascist country (to this day, in any case, she has never recognised it as such, calling it at most “democratic” despite the anti-fascist origins of the Italian Republic). This is of course somewhat coherent with her legacy and past: in a 1996 French television interview, Giorgia Meloni praised the Italian dictator, stating that “Mussolini was a good politician, in that everything he did, he did for Italy,” and adding that there had been no politicians like him in the “last 50 years”.
In 2022, when Giorgia Meloni enters the Quirinale to accept the position of Prime Minister before the Head of State Sergio Mattarella, she will describe herself as the one who shattered “the glass ceiling”: the first time a woman has been appointed prime minister in Italy. Although she started from scratch—from her defeat in the 2014 European elections, when she failed to win even a single seat—in eight years she managed to reach that glass ceiling. Of course, Silvio Berlusconi gave her a helping hand both financially and politically since the falling of Alleanza Nazionale when Gianfranco Fini got out of the center right alliance with Berlusconi by creating a party of his own and Meloni chose Silvio Berlusconi even when he was at the lowest point of his fall, forced to resign as Prime Minister while the streets of Italy’s cities were packed with people shouting and rallying for his ouster.
Meloni and the connection with the Maga movement
Meloni’s “friendship” with Donald Trump started out soon after the tycoon’s first electoral victory, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. During those eight years, she participated in several right wing congress meetings in the United States and was often a prominent guest of National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), a non-profit conservative cultural organisation founded in 1975 which has always played an important role in strategic institutional relations between Italy and the US. It was largely thanks to Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini (another Italian right wing leader) that Steve Bannon, known for having played a decisive role in Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and for having maintained a prominent role in the MAGA movement, rose to the role of one of the leading strategists, ideologues, and political allies of the US sovereignist right in Europe, between 2018 and 2019. Bannon was the keynote speaker at the Fratelli d’Italia political festival, Atreju, in 2018.
In the meantime, Meloni as prime minister tried to prove herself a US strong ally even with Joe Biden, while waiting for Trumps’ second victory. In September 2024, the Financial Times reported from Rome that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was “strengthening ties with Trump’s circle” ahead of the U.S. presidential election on November 5. And then adding that “while most European leaders are concerned about the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House, in Rome, this scenario is seen as an advantage for a politician with longstanding ties to the Trump camp: Giorgia Meloni”. While Meloni as a matter of fact had so far refused to comment on the US elections, stating that she will work with whoever occupies the White House, the leadership of her party, Fratelli d’Italia, was in fact quietly working behind the scenes to strengthen ties with the Republicans.
The Financial Times also focused on her years in the opposition when “Meloni was a regular attendee at US political events where Trump spoke, and she praised him as a source of inspiration for Italian politics.” In early 2020, the FT kept on reporting, she was a guest at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, where Trump spoke. She later praised his “defense of American identity, borders, businesses, products, and families,” stating that she wanted to “bring the same formula to Italy.” The FT also noted that “the Italian prime minister has developed a strong bond with tech mogul Elon Musk, whom Trump had chosen to lead the federal government’s ‘drastic reforms’ in the event of a victory,” as occurred.
As a matter of fact, for a long period of time the government led by Giorgia Meloni has been considering Elon Musk’s satellite technology (Starlink) as a supplementary measure to provide coverage for remote areas of Italy (i.e. business). Although there have been several discussions regarding telecommunications and intelligence services, the government – often criticized by the opposition and the public opinion on that matter – has since clarified that Starlink will not replace the fiber-optic network envisaged by the NRRP (the National Recovery and Resilience Plan).
Musk, who has shown foresight in this regard, also played a key role as an intermediary between Italy and Trump’s United States in securing the release of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who had been kidnapped in Iran. On top of this, Musk’s representative in Italy, Andrea Stroppa, a young cybersecurity expert from Rome, is under investigation by the Rome Prosecutor’s Office in a corruption case. Therefore Musk and Meloni bond has been put on hold for the time being, at least in the eyes of the public opinion.
A skirmish between two former friends
The friendship between Meloni and Trump also survived the tariffs’ issue. When Trump decided to impose tariffs on the European Union in general—and on Italy specifically for certain products—Meloni was believed to be the favourite diplomatic intermediary between the EU and the US president, but she was in that role soon substituted by Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The Italin prime minister has navigated the situation with a mix of diplomacy and a constant downplaying of the problem, even going so far as to pretend that the United States’ closest ally, Israel, was not committing genocide in Gaza—an issue she consistently championed when she was in the opposition instead. But when, last February 28, the US and Israel launched a military attack on Iran under false pretences, even the Italian prime minister had no choice but to distance herself from this insane act and join the rest of the European Union in criticising Trump and Netanyahu. This is also because Italy, like the rest of the Western countries that rely on Iranian oil, has been struggling economically since the start of the war against Iran—a conflict that is now on hold due to an agreement that is constantly at risk of collapse though.
From that moment onwards, Giorgia Meloni began speaking of Italy as a sovereign state and of independence, while stating that the respecting of the rules governing NATO relations and the long-standing ties between Italy and the United States come first. When Italy, like some other countries both inside and outside the European Union, refused to join US military operations in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump—who cannot stand disloyalty—began to mock the Italian prime minister and call her a traitor.
This was the reaction of an uncontrolled child, which reached a boiling point when speaking about his meeting with Giorgia Meloni in France to Italian journalist Daniele Compatangelo—who, incredibly so in introducing a question to the American president about Ukraine, referred to the “eight conflicts” quelled by Trump. A fake news Trump himself spread out since day one of his second term. However, this comment was overshadowed by the news that dominated the headlines, Trump’s misogynistic and disrespectful behaviour toward the prime minister of another country—as if Trump were, after all, new to such outbursts. The US president claimed that Meloni had “begged” him to take a photo together and that he agreed only because he “felt sorry” for her which in English could have a double sense depending on the context: to be sorry positively for something bad occurring to someone or a derogatory one which of course is the focus of Trump’s remark toward Meloni.
The spat between the now former friends continued throughout the weekend with the prime minister responding several times to Trump through her social media by criticising him as an enemy of the West, while the tycoon and 47th U.S. president remarked that he could do without her adoration, which, according to Trump, Meloni is using to try to regain her popularity. In short, two children who were “allies” only out of convenience have ended up playing petty pranks on each other, while the world goes up in flames, the death toll in Gaza continues to rise, and Israel—by sabotaging the US-Iran agreement—continues to claim just as many lives in Lebanon. Friendship has no place in these dynamics: Meloni remains a post-fascist who pays no heed to the political tradition she comes from, the neofascism, which has caused so much pain and death in Italy; nor will Trump, with his health and behavioural issues, ever stop playing the role of the sole king. At least not until the midterm elections.
Simona Zecchi*
*Journalist and writer Simona Zecchi also curated as editor the investigative book “Meloni Segreta” authored by Andrea Palladino printed out in 2023 by Ponte alle Grazie publishing house.
