Commentary
At the last minute, Meloni bowed to the new emperor
One should not imagine that the premier is not pleased with this almost obligatory presence at Trump's big party. The woman is quick to see opportunities and even quicker to seize them.
Giorgia Meloni seems to have been struck by a revelation on the road to Tehran. On the eve of her meeting with Trump, they were still putting on a show of outrage: “Why should she go and kowtow?” Salvini was already more than enough to fill the role of Trumpian sycophant, and he never asked for anything more – and now, him being snubbed for an invitation to Trump’s inauguration is a grievance of the kind that time won’t heal. The fig leaf to explain why he’s staying home is that he has to investigate the attacks on the railroads.
To mock him any further would be to kick a man when he’s down. Once the proud “Captain” of the right-wingers, he has now been given the most thankless part: a character akin to Sylvester the cat. On a human level, he deserves some sympathy.
The truth is that the Italian prime minister’s initial position that she wouldn’t attend Trump’s inauguration was intended to maintain an image, but not only. It touched on etiquette: as a rule, foreign heads of state and government are not invited to presidential inaugurations.
But the soon-to-be-inaugurated Trump had himself broken with the custom, handing out invitations in a flurry, and the Italian head of government was not the only one who said yes. Argentina's Milei and El Salvador's Bukele were invited as well.
Representing Xi Jinping, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng took part, and he alone is as important a guest as everyone in attendance put together. But the biggest factor that made the premier hold back from accepting was the fact that she really didn’t want to find herself lumped in with the worst of the European right. Not that she doesn't appreciate her old sovereignist friends – though maybe not all of them, and not all of them equally. But, as we know, she likes to sit on both sides of the fence, and the Washington party will have a very definite hue: extreme sovereignism and no-frills supremacism. In short, it’s the right-wing gruel but taken to such extremes that it even made Marine Le Pen felt wary: she is already thinking only of the next presidential elections, and chose not to be present at the White House.
However, the invitation came from “the Emperor” himself, and after he had just graciously agreed to look the other way entirely for the hostage exchange with Iran. Giorgia Meloni is not naïve. She knew right away that she had no choice but to go, even if she waited until the last moment to make it official. According to the version circulated by her team at Palazzo Chigi, it was supposedly out of respect for her friend Ursula von der Leyen who hadn’t been invited. More likely it was in order to avoid controversy of any kind.
Thus, the Italian Prime Minister, escorted by three members of her party, left on Sunday night at the last moment for a touch-and-go visit. On Monday (indoors because of the cold instead of in front of the White House, as is customary) she was to sit together with the French Eric Zemmour, who makes Le Pen look like a milquetoast moderate, the British Nigel Farage, the ayatollah of Brexit, and the German Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the AfD, too extreme even for Orbán's Patriots group.
She won’t be too happy with the questionable company, even though they (together with Trump) are all fans of the new buzzword: “remigration,” or mass deportation if you will.
Still, she will have the consolation of exchanging small talk with some of the richest men in the world, the masters of the web: Bezos, Zuckerberg and Tim Cook, as well as the very familiar Elon, with whom the conversation will flow unstoppably. There won’t be time for a face-to-face with Trump, however. They’ve already said what they had to say to each other at Mar-a-Lago, and for the rest there will be time.
One should not imagine, however, that the premier is not pleased with this almost obligatory presence at Trump's big party. The woman is quick to see opportunities and even quicker to seize them.
As disagreeable as the other European guests may be, the fact remains that she is the only European prime minister invited, and not just by a letter but personally by Trump himself. Her friend Ursula won’t be there, nor will Hungary's Orbán, the number one Trumpian on the old continent.
As we know, ceremonial occasions have always had a definite political meaning. The presence of the Italian leader, insistently invited by the American president himself, is almost like an investiture to the role of viceroy of the European province of the empire. Perhaps that isn’t what Meloni had in mind, with her equidistance between the White House and the Berlaymont Palace.
And it is probably not the only scenario she considers likely; after all, Trump remains unpredictable even for her. But it’s certainly not a role to sneeze at either. An underling, but one of high lineage.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/trump-day-meloni-si-inchina-allimperatore on 2025-01-19