Marco Rubio at the Vatican: the pope won his battle against Trump

In the columns of the liberal daily newspaper Il Foglio, Matteo Matzuzzi, a Vatican expert for the journal, seems to savor a victory. “This pope may be ‘catastrophic’ in foreign policy as Trump says, but three weeks after their dispute, the latter still sent Marco Rubio to Rome to mend relations. This clearly indicates who won the battle.”

It may seem distant considering the pace of statements from the American president, but on April 12, Donald Trump shocked the world by directly attacking the pontiff on his social network. He accused Leon XIV of being “lenient on crime and lenient on nuclear weapons” and urged him to “stop pleasing the radical left” and to strive to “be a great pope, not a politician.” This significantly strained relations between the Vatican and Washington.

Naturally, the announcement on May 3 of a meeting between Marco Rubio and Robert Prevost at the Vatican on Thursday, May 7, is seen as an American attempt to appease tensions. It may even be considered necessary to maintain the support of the Catholic electorate in the United States. The daily newspaper from Milan notes that since the clash between Trump and Leon XIV, “the pope’s popularity among American Catholics is growing, while Trump’s is declining.”

Given the context, Trump did not choose his envoy randomly. Marco Rubio had already met the pope last year and has been a lifelong Catholic – unlike Vice President J.D. Vance, who converted. “Rubio benefits from a certain respect at the Vatican, where he is seen as more visible and therefore more trustworthy than Vance,” argues the Roman media Domani.

Context: The article discusses the recent tensions between the Pope and President Trump, along with the efforts to mend relations through a meeting between Marco Rubio and Vatican representatives.

Fact Check: “Truth” is not a known social network. This could be a typographical error in the article.

Fact Check: J.D. Vance is mistakenly referred to as J.D. Vance in the article. The correct name is J.D. Vance.

Fact Check: There is no known person named Robert Prevost in relation to Vatican affairs.