After a long election campaign that has polarized American and international public opinion, Donald Trump is confirmed as the 47th president of the United States. His victory generates curiosity and debates in every part of the world, spreading a certain sense of expectation and apprehension about the future of the global order. All world leaders, regardless of their political color, have greeted the president-elect by sending messages of congratulations. Among these, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stands out.
Traditionally, Meloni had intense and deep relations with the conservative establishment, while recently, she has marked a U-turn toward democratic positions with the Biden administration. As a matter of fact, since her rise to power in 2022, Meloni has cooled many of her more traditionally ideological demands to better represent her institutional role within a European Union characterized by the liberal left and to honor the historic Italian-American friendship. The scenario could change today without compromising the close interests binding Italy and the U.S.
Meloni certainly wasted no time in congratulating Trump on his electoral victory: During the phone call, she expressed her willingness to work in close coordination on all the main international dossiers, starting with the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East, sharing the goal "of promoting stability and security, also in the context of relations with the EU." The government note also reports that "the intention to continue the path of strengthening the already excellent bilateral relations, based on shared values and principles, agreeing on the opportunity to remain in close contact" was affirmed and that "the solid alliance, the strategic partnership and the deep and historic friendship that have always tied Rome and Washington" was confirmed.
At the same time, as reported on X, Meloni called her friend Elon Musk, CEO of X and Tesla and an ally of Trump in his race toward the White House. "I am convinced that his commitment and vision will be an important resource for the U.S. and Italy, in a spirit of collaboration aimed at facing future challenges," wrote Meloni. Indeed, her relationship with Musk is quite deep and well-tested. Musk was welcomed several times by the leader of Fratelli d’Italia, the last one at the end of 2023 in Rome along a right-wing manifestation. Moreover, in September 2024, Musk himself presented Meloni with the Atlantic Council's “Global Citizen Award” in New York, marking a move that could be interpreted as an intention to reapproach the Republican front.
As a matter of fact, today, there is room to think that Musk could act as a point of contact between Trump and Meloni, elevating the latter to main European interlocutor alongside Orban, who has always sided with the Republican candidate. More recently, some statements by Elon Musk are to be read as an endorsement of Meloni, although they have inflamed the Italian political climate, further exacerbating social polarization.
Referring to the decision of the Italian judges to block the sending of some migrants from Italy to the reception camp set up by the Italian government in Albania, Elon Musk posted on X: "These judges must go." The externalization of irregular migration is indeed an ambitious project in which the Meloni government invested, but it immediately faced the issue of illegitimacy as established by the Italian judiciary. "Do the Italian people live in a democracy or is it an unelected autocracy that makes decisions?"
Musk doubled down by sparking discontent in some sectors of Italian politics and society. "Italy knows how to take care of itself in compliance with its Constitution ... Anyone, especially if, as announced, is about to assume an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot take on the task of issuing prescriptions," the words of the president of Italy's Republic, Sergio Mattarella addressing Musk, who in turn replied that he "respected the Italian president and expressed his opinions as a free citizen."
However, the Ceo of Tesla and X, also in his next institutional capacity as leader of the U.S. government efficiency, risked enlarging further some political fracture in Italy, either in terms of relations between the government and the opposition, either within the governing group and within Meloni's party, Fratelli di Italia. Meloni concluded: "We always listen with great respect to the words of the president." In a historical moment when the nomination of Raffaele Fitto as European Commissioner has been questioned again at a European level and many dossiers are on the government's desk, the priority of the Italian Prime Minister is focusing on a climate of substantial social unity.
In this regard, along with growing concerns, Meloni would warn her friend Musk to tone down and not " put her in difficulty." As it is evident, between the two, there is great political harmony, also hinging on important complementarities in business, both about the Italian acquisition of Tesla and the Starlink satellite network. This was supplied during the flood hitting Italy's northern region of Emilia Romagna in 2023 by ensuring precise localization and communication to cope with the emergency. There are rumors about agreements regarding satellite coverage projects at institutional, defense and security levels.
To some extent, this marks a new page for the Italian PM, for her party Fratelli di Italia and for the Italian government, which in the past four years had flattened itself on the democratic positions of the outgoing President Joe Biden, distorting in a certain sense its own political identity in the name of the values of the transatlantic alliance. Undoubtedly, Meloni and her party embed the right-wing instances genetically close to conservative programmatic contents of the Republicans, on which politically there is a substantial convergence on internal issues pivoting mainly on migration and border defense. When in the past, she was still in the opposition circles, Meloni celebrated Trump, then president of the U.S., pronouncing words of criticism towards Europe and characterized by a strong sovereignism.
However, once she became head of the Italian government, the tone changed as she was totally embedded in the European structure; even the rhetoric regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war recorded a u-turn, aligning itself with Biden's positions. It is therefore clear that, as Italian Prime Minister, Meloni has been in the position of keeping a complicated balance regarding American politics: the Italian imperative is indeed to demonstrate that it is a reliable ally of the U.S., given the enormous economic and diplomatic influence and the historical legacy binding them. In this light, in her government tenure, Meloni has assumed controversial positions, thus she was criticized especially by her traditional electorate.
Her transition from opposition leader to head of government, coinciding with the Biden administration, has therefore marked a sort of transformation from more Trumpian instances to those more aligned with democratic values. Eventually, with Trump's reconfirmation at the White House, these contradictions may disappear without implications to the structural limits imposed by Italy's ties with the EU and by Italian interests in some regional chess boards. To date, in several sectors, the great question mark is over the future of Italy's positioning in Ukraine and in the Middle East. Besides, the fear of the return of economic duties and of constraints of the allies on the NATO budget is looming.
Nevertheless, within the Italian political spectrum, different feelings about Trump are carved out. While the opposition has always been against the conservatives' actions and perceives Trump as “the worst that could happen” in terms of the defense of rights, the Italian center-right was quite divided, except Matteo Salvini, leader of the Lega, who has always openly supported Trump. "Tax cuts, the fight against illegal immigration, the return to peace as a priority ... President Trump will act in the interests of U.S. citizens, as it is right. If, in pursuing these interests, we could create a new international balance, with the closure of the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine, the entire world would gain from it," Salvini claims.
On top of everything, the great unknown is related to the future of the EU and its relations with the U.S. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Trump with “an excellent phone call,” stating: “Looking forward to strengthening EU-U.S. ties and working jointly to address geopolitical challenges,” X reports. However, there is room to believe that dark prospects await the EU, which – now more than ever – must make an immediate leap in quality and broadening its vision.
In an increasingly fractured European framework characterized by strong growth of right-wing movements, a progressive loss of French influence, and the German crisis, Giorgia Meloni is undoubtedly the leader who enjoys stable support and a certain international projection. All these elements eventually suggest the rise of Meloni as a privileged interlocutor of Trump's America, together with Orban, who recently hosted the European Political Union Summit in Budapest, where a new wind of change was felt. It is, therefore, not surprising if, in the medium term, within the EU, we would observe new alignments in favor of Italy, which is proving to be increasingly central in the management of some dossiers. On the other hand, Meloni is in the delicate position to find the right balance between the inner original spirit of Fratelli d'Italia, which was aligned with Trump's approach, and the national and European political constraints. In this case, by echoing Meloni, it would not be wrong to say that “with this American vote, Italy will be stronger in Europe.”
