Giorgia Meloni is her own woman, a leader who is reforming, reshaping, and reinvigorating Italy.

Though she is highly regarded by the Trump administration, the prime minister does not fall in lockstep with POTUS 47 or MAGA-world.

At her first press conference of 2026, Signora Meloni declared that when she disagrees with President Trump she tells him so directly.

One works with one’s allies, eschewing grandstanding, posturing and unnecessary turmoil.

“What’s the alternative? Assaulting McDonald’s, leaving NATO, closing American bases?” quipped Signora Meloni.

The premier, according to Decode39, “acknowledged open disagreements” with Mr. Trump, “particularly on international law,” but she “framed them as part of a mature alliance, addressed directly and without ambiguity.”

“I’ve agreed with Trump on Venezuela,” said Italy’s prime minister, “but not Greenland.”

Rather than engaging in a performative bit of pearl-clutching outrage over the means employed to topple the tyrant in Caracas, Italy’s premier got to work — securing the release of two Italian nationals who’d been wrongly imprisoned by the former ruler’s regime.

Thanks to the Meloni government’s deft diplomacy, a charity worker from Venice, Alberto Trentini, and a businessman from Turin,  Mario Burlo, were freed.

“Welcome home,” exclaimed Signora Meloni as she greeted the duo at Rome’s Ciampino airport.

Venezuela is a very important country for Rome. As ANSA reported, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated that “we intend to raise the level of representation, which up to now has been with the chargé d’affaires, to the rank of ambassador.”

Eni, the Italian energy giant, has a significant presence at Caracas.

And Venezuela was named by none other than Amerigo Vespucci, who called it “Veneziola,” or “Little Venice.”

Unlike some of her contemporaries on the world stage, Signora Meloni does not mistake platitudes for policy.

Her mission is nothing less than the reanimation of her nation, a feat not accomplished since the days of Alcide De Gasperi.

Italy’s burgeoning global profile owes much to the premier’s galvanizing role in lending clarity, continuity, and coherence to governance. Her Mattei Plan initiative for Africa, which has now expanded from 9 to 14 participating countries, will make Italy a European energy hub.

“Italy’s prime minister has done it again,” declared Politico recently in lauding Giorgia Meloni’s key role in winning approval for the Mercosur free-trade deal with Latin America. “All in all, yet another laurel in Rome’s crown.”

In a Financial Times article about Signora Meloni’s longevity in office, a former premier, Romano Prodi, admitted that “from the point of view of financial stability, she has achieved a lot.”

However, he ascribes that to mere political survival: “From her experience in the Berlusconi government, she learnt that if you have a financial crisis, you lose everything.”  

The piece’s author, Amy Kazmin, then cites the allegedly centrist leader of the Azione party, Carlo Calenda, who “says Meloni and her team have been “completely paralyzed” in the face of Italy’s complex economic challenges. “Her approach is, ‘let’s not make a mistake, so I’ll do nothing’.”

Italy’s unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent as of November 2025, its lowest rate since records began in 2004. In 2022, when Signora Meloni entered Palazzo Chigi, joblessness was nearly 8.0 percent. 

Rome’s budget deficit is expected to fall to 2.8 percent of GDP in 2026, and inflation has dropped to 1.1 percent.

The deputy minister of labor and social policies, Maria Teresa Bellucci, explains that “these decidedly positive data confirm the policies implemented by the Meloni government through support for businesses, incentives for stable employment, active policies for young people, and innovative tools for job inclusion.”

Signora Meloni has always put Italy’s interests first.  Yet she understands the big picture better than most. 

When she attends the Davos conference in Switzerland next week, the Italian premier will urge her G-7 partners to choose allied comity over disunity.

And while Italy stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine, Signora Meloni has proposed an inevitable rapprochement with Russia.

Decode39 notes the prime minister’s declaration: “It is time for the EU to talk to Russia.”

Despite Moscow’s anti-Italian rhetoric in recent years, Signora Meloni will argue for a comprehensive solution to the forever wars, That is, promoting deterrence, democracy, and détente on a global scale.