Weeks after a high-profile public clash between U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV exposed deep rifts in U.S.-Vatican relations and strained transatlantic alliances, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to travel to Rome this week for a planned meeting with the pontiff, a senior Vatican source confirmed to AFP on Sunday.
The planned gathering, first reported by Italian media outlets, is set to take place Thursday with the explicit goal of de-escalating tensions between the White House and the Holy See, according to local newspaper coverage. The meeting comes just ahead of a key milestone for Pope Leo, who will mark one year in office as the head of the global Catholic Church this Friday. Elected by the College of Cardinals on May 8, 2025 following the passing of Pope Francis, the 70-year-old Leo made history as the first American-born pope in the Church’s 2,000-year history.
His unique origin has positioned his statements to carry unusual weight in U.S. political discourse, a platform he has not shied away from using: he has previously criticized the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies, but it was his sharp anti-war rhetoric in the wake of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered Trump’s fierce public backlash. Leo drew Trump’s wrath after calling the president’s open threat to destroy Iran “unacceptable” and urging U.S. citizens to pressure their elected representatives to prioritize diplomatic peace efforts.
Trump responded with a blistering social media post attacking the pope as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy”, adding that he was “not a big fan of Pope Leo” and falsely claiming the pontiff supported Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Leo countered that he held a “moral duty to speak out” against war, and later made headlines with a speech in Cameroon that condemned “tyrants” for destabilizing the global order. The pope later clarified the speech had been written months before the public row, and he had no intention of reigniting conflict with Trump.
Global Christian communities quickly voiced solidarity with Pope Leo, and the backlash extended to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of Trump’s closest European allies. When Meloni called Trump’s criticism of the pope “unacceptable”, the U.S. president turned his ire on her, attacking her in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Trump said he was “shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong”, and accused the far-right Italian leader, who has long positioned herself as a bridge between competing U.S. and European interests, of failing to support the U.S. within NATO.
Trump has gone even further, threatening to withdraw all U.S. troops from Italy, claiming Rome has “not been of any help to us” in the Iran conflict. He has issued identical threats against Spain, and the Pentagon has already formally announced it will withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany. As of the end of 2025, the U.S. maintains 12,662 active-duty troops in Italy, 3,814 in Spain, and 36,436 in Germany, according to official data.
Alongside his planned meeting with Pope Leo, Rubio is scheduled to hold talks with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. The U.S. secretary of state had previously requested a meeting with Meloni, but that gathering will not go forward following Trump’s break with the Italian prime minister, the source confirmed. Additional media reports also indicate Rubio will meet Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, as divisions over the Middle East war continue to deepen long-running frictions across transatlantic ties.