Relations between the United States and Italy and between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV have been delicate lately to say the least. So, the Trump administration is sending in the one man to the Vatican who can possibly help them recalibrate them this week: Marco Rubio.
The State Department announced on Monday that the secretary of State will travel to Rome on Wednesday "to advance bilateral relations with Italy and the Vatican."
"Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere," the statement continued. "Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment."
Several MSM outlets are saying that he will meet with the pope and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's foreign minister, on Thursday. He'll most likely also meet with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, and possibly even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself, but the State Department didn't specify that information.
We all know the background. The pope has repeatedly criticized the United States and Israel's conflict in Iran, calling for more dialogue and peace talks — you know, the sort of thing that hasn't worked for decades.
"Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions," he said in March, shortly after the conflict began. "I address to the parties involved a heartfelt appeal to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss!"
While this is standard Vatican peace talk, he's also criticized Trump's rhetoric regarding Iran, particularly calling the infamous "a whole civilization will die tonight" line "truly unacceptable."
Trump didn't take too kindly to that and has responded via social media and interviews with various outlets, calling the pope "weak on crime," "very liberal," and "terrible for foreign policy."
On Truth Social on April 12, the president wrote: "I don't want a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon...I don't want a Pope who thinks U.S. action against Venezuela was wrong." (I can't speak for the Iranians, but I can tell you that the Venezuelans are firmly in favor of the U.S. action against Venezuela.)
The president added, "And I don't want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I'm doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do..."
He concluded that the pontiff needed to "get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It's hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it's hurting the Catholic Church!"
When talking to reporters later, the president said, "I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo. He's a very liberal person, and he's a man that doesn't believe in stopping crime. He's a man that doesn't think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world. I'm not a fan of Pope Leo."
Eventually, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — someone who is typically a pretty staunch Trump ally — got into the spat and criticized Trump's words against the pope, calling them "unacceptable." She said it was normal for the head of the Catholic Church to condemn "every form for war." Trump didn't take too kindly to this either and said that "she's the one who's unacceptable" and claims she's "no longer the same person." The two have been distancing themselves from each other ever since.
Meloni has also been critical of military action in Iran herself, and "sided with France, Spain, the U.K., and Germany in declining to participate in mine sweeping and other military operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during Iran’s initial blockade of the strategic waterway."
So, can DJ Rubio Secretary Rubio save the day? He is our country's top diplomat after all, but more importantly, Trump knows that Rubio's got the personality to handle these types of situations when the president himself... well, let's just say he's a bit more blunt.
And he admits it too. Earlier this year, he confessed that Rubio, who has become one of this most trusted advisors, was teaching him.
"I became a diplomat for the first time. Well, you know, taught me that? Marco Rubio. He said, ‘Let me teach you about diplomacy,’" the president said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.
The president has also admitted on several occasions that Rubio is "a bit more diplomatic" than Vice President JD Vance, who has Trump's knack for telling it like it is.
But that doesn't mean Rubio is soft. We all saw the speech he gave at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, telling European leaders that "we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline."
Let's just hope he carries that energy into his trip this week. And maybe a little of this energy too. I mean, who can resist it?:
Additional footage of Marco Rubio DJing at a family wedding last night. pic.twitter.com/eoPLSA4MA0
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) May 3, 2026
Related: 'DJ' Marco Rubio Goes Viral — and Receives High Praise From... a Democrat?
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
Help us continue to report on the administration’s peace through strength foreign policy and its successes. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member