Rubio visits Rome and Vatican amid Trump rift with pope, Meloni

Marco Rubio arrived in Rome this week with an unusually delicate brief: repair the optics, if not the politics, of a widening rift between President Donald Trump and two of Washington’s closest interlocutors in Europe, Pope Leo XIV and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The trip, scheduled for May 6 to May 8, was billed by the State Department as a push to advance bilateral relations with Italy and the Holy See. Officials said Rubio’s meetings would center on shared security interests, strategic alignment, the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere, putting hard security concerns alongside the diplomatic fallout from Trump’s sharp rhetoric.

Rubio, who is both secretary of state and Trump’s national security adviser, was expected to meet Meloni, Leo XIV and Cardinal Pietro Parolin. He spent about 2.5 hours at the Vatican before departing in a convoy under tight security, a sign of how sensitive the visit had become.

The trip unfolded as Trump escalated his criticism of Leo on social media in April and again in early May, after the pope criticized the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Trump administration policies. The backlash was broad, with Christians across the political spectrum objecting to Trump’s comments. Meloni defended the pope, and Italy’s defense minister warned that the war in Iran put U.S. leadership at risk.

At the Vatican, Leo and Rubio discussed countries marked by war and renewed a shared commitment to improving Vatican-U.S. relations. Vatican officials said the talks reflected a common desire to keep communication open despite the public tension. It was the first meeting between a Trump cabinet official and the pope in nearly a year.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, has also pressed Trump on immigration, criticizing hard-line anti-immigration policies, and has kept Cuba on the diplomatic agenda. In February, he said he was deeply concerned as the Trump administration ramped up a blockade of Cuba’s oil supply. In March, Cuba released 51 prisoners under an agreement with the Vatican.

Rubio had said before the visit that there was “a lot to talk about” with the Vatican. That proved true in Rome, where the talks underscored how personal politics, religious sensitivities and strategic calculations now overlap in a relationship that once looked far more straightforward.