Italy’s Meloni Bolsters Ties With Trump To Forestall Fraying of Transatlantic Alliance

Is the Western alliance disintegrating?Not if Giorgia Meloni can help it.Unlike some of America’s transatlantic partners, the Italian premier is buttressing the West — without trashing President Trump.Yes, the 47th president can be a bombastic disruptor. His tariff policies — which veer from the draconian to the moderately irritating — have alienated traditional allies.Mr. Trump tends to come across as a transactional actor who cares little for Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty, or the European Union.Yet Signora Meloni looks beyond the president’s fulminations.Like NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, she recognizes that there’s a there there with Mr. Trump.As the leader of a sister republic, Signora Meloni stands out as a uniter — not a divider — lending a theme to Mr. Trump’s inchoate pudding.“She has resisted European proposals to retaliate against Trump’s trade threats” writes Marcus Walker in the Wall Street Journal, “and called for the U.S. and Europe to deepen their ties.”Decoupling from the Arsenal of Democracy is more than a little foolhardy.Italy’s first female prime minister is forging the geopolitical equivalent of Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any Western ally.”That is, one can disagree with a fellow leader without being disagreeable.Signora Meloni did just that when she voiced her objection to Mr. Trump’s plan to acquire Greenland.Yet Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s recent dismissal of the American administration at the Munich Security Conference was as inappropriate as it was ill-timed.Though Signora Meloni has strengthened ties with Herr Merz’s Germany, her approach to Western unity differs from her German counterpart’s.Indeed, she parts company with Herr Merz, who claims that America’s leadership is “perhaps already lost.”Like Potus 47, Italy’s premier shares Mr. Trump’s entrepreneurial, free-market ideology. In this regard, they are cut from the same political cloth — as is Vice President Vance, who recently lauded Signora Meloni’s stewardship of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.The White House treats Meloni as a kindred spirit, Mr. Walker reports, as Mr. Trump calls Signora Meloni “one of the real leaders of the world” on the cover of the premier’s new book, based on conversations with an Italian reporter, “Giorgia’s Vision.”Vice President Vance “wrote the foreword of the English edition, due out in April,” Mr. Walker adds, calling that “a favor it is hard to imagine him doing” for, say, President Emmanuel Macron.Do such words and actions constitute flattery that will be forgotten before the year is out? Or are they manifestations of a substantive partnership?The White House and Palazzo Chigi both recognize that Western civilization remains the source and wellspring of progress.And the American administration prizes Signora Meloni’s unwavering support and fealty to the Western Alliance.In an interview with Corriere della Sera, she reiterated her belief that Europe should not be going it alone when it comes to preserving, protecting and defending the West.Indeed, she declared that “Working to enhance what unites us rather than what might divide us is very important for everyone, especially for European countries. I believe it’s very important for Italy.”Instead of attending the contentious Munich Security Conference, Signora Meloni traveled to the former Italian colony of Ethiopia — this time with an olive branch and the promise of revolutionary economic development for Africa.Italy’s premier is in the vanguard of the coming global realignment, the triumph of the Western way writ large.According to Decode 39, Signora Meloni envisions her Mattei Plan to curb migration by promoting economic development in North Africa “first and foremost as a national strategy.” Yet she undoubtedly also sees it as an idea “rooted in the broader European policy for Africa, thereby demonstrating Italy’s key role in shaping the Union’s cooperation with the continent.”Like her recent sojourns to South Korea, Japan, and Oman, Signora Meloni’s African outreach has recalibrated Rome’s foreign policy in forging a better and more prosperous tomorrow.And in recognition of Italy’s constructive global engagements, Signora Meloni has agreed to join Mr. Trump’s Board of Peace as an observer going forward. That’s of a piece with her agenda of restoring the greatness of her nation and the West.

Italy’s Meloni Bolsters Ties With Trump To Forestall Fraying of Transatlantic Alliance

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