Rubio to visit Italy, Vatican amid troop drawdown call, tension with Trump, Pope Leo: reports

Rubio is also expected to hold talks with Italy's foreign and defense ministers, the Italian newspapers reported.

"Why shouldn't I? Italy has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible," Trump said Friday from the Oval Office.

"I didn't need the help, but I said, 'Yeah, we'd love to have your help,' because I want to see if they'd do it. And they, in all cases, they said, 'We don't want to get involved.' And you know the amazing thing is they use the Strait of Hormuz, and we don't. We don't use it. We don't need it. We have a lot of oil."

Trump has praised Rubio for his peacemaking and diplomatic efforts.

"People like you," Trump said of Rubio during his State of the Union address earlier this year. The president even joked he might consider firing Rubio after the Munich Security Conference for being so likable and effective on the world stage.

"You have done a great job, a great secretary of state. I think he'll go down as the best ever."

Italy remains one of the largest hosts of U.S. forces in Europe, with nearly 13,000 active-duty American troops stationed across six bases at the end of 2025.

It is uncertain whether Rubio will also meet with the pope, who has been critical of the Trump administration's peacemaking efforts in the Middle East.

Trump had repeatedly blasted the pope for criticizing the war on Iran and the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies.

"Leo should 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," he concluded.

The trip is aimed in part at easing tensions between Washington and Rome after Trump publicly criticized Meloni, one of his closest European allies, over her stance on the Iran war and her defense of the pope.

Reuters contributed to this report.