Does anyone think Rubio's visit to Rome

[Prairie Gates]

6. The Pope is for show...the real problem is that Meloni is cracking after the courts referendum and Orban

Meloni is a shrewd and brilliant woman, and she does not want to cede power. She's seen two major losses that have her recalculating her allegiance to Trump. First, her own political capital was spilled over a referendum to change the Italian constitution - it failed badly when it was supposed to be close. Second, Orban, her closest ally in Europe, showed her what is happening to the global right. Meloni has always governed softer than Orban, even if her rhetoric is equivalent, but it no doubt scared her.

Finally, Trump humiliated her, beginning the Iran bombing without informing her, and embarrassingly so: Italy's defense minister was vacationing with his family in Dubai when the bombing started (hard to spin that you haven't been left out when your literal defense minister has his own children in the line of fire on a vacation!).

Rubio is there to do a show with the Pope for the US Catholics who are questioning Trump's nonsense. But he's really there to try to talk Meloni off the ledge.