Secretary of State Marco Rubio is touching down in Europe at a tenuous moment for transatlantic relations.
The US is withdrawing thousands of troops from Germany, threatening higher auto tariffs on the EU, and accusing NATO countries of not doing enough to help the US fight Iran.
President Donald Trump has even criticized one of his allies in the region, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with whom Rubio will meet on Friday following Thursday’s face-to-face with Pope Leo XIV.
Rubio and Meloni will cover a broad agenda, including the Middle East, Western Hemisphere, and China, according to the Italian embassy. But the Trump administration is unlikely to persuade European partners to do more to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. ”
I don’t think there’s much that they can do because I don’t think there’s much that the United States can do,” the Atlantic Council’s Matthew Kroenig told Semafor.