The trilateral summit held at Palazzo Chigi between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was presented as an attempt to “keep the West united” for the sake of “shared values” and “30% of global trade.” Yet behind this seemingly noble intent lies a structural ambiguity that risks emptying the very concept of “Western unity” of its meaning.
The Context: A Deep Rift Between the U.S. and the EU
With the inauguration of the Trump administration on January 20, 2025, the United States clearly broke with the previous globalist-progressive cycle. Vice President J.D. Vance, a voice of traditional and grounded America, has openly criticized the European Union multiple times — most notably at the Munich Security Conference — describing the EU as an ideologically driven entity detached from its citizens, a promoter of proxy war in Ukraine, and a vehicle for globalist agendas.
This is not a passing stance, but rather the expression of a deep and coherent political worldview, one that stands in sharp contrast to that of Ursula von der Leyen, who continues to represent the technocratic, progressive, and interventionist face of Europe, increasingly associated with a governance disconnected from its peoples.
JD Vance meets with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy PM Giorgia Meloni after attending Pope Leo inaugural Mass. pic.twitter.com/f0mMbccQz2
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) May 18, 2025
Meloni’s Fundamental Misstep
Meloni’s initiative to seat Vance and von der Leyen at the same table seems more like a public relations maneuver than a coherent political strategy. Her stated justification — the need for “Western unity” to “defend values and global commerce” — sounds vague and disconnected from reality, especially when the two sides of the Atlantic are now carriers of increasingly irreconcilable worldviews.
This is not merely a lack of dialogue, but a profound ideological incompatibility.
On one side, the Trump–Vance White House promotes a realist, sovereignist, non-interventionist policy, rooted in traditional values, the primacy of real production over financial abstraction, and the affirmation of national interest as the compass of foreign policy.
On the other side, the EU under von der Leyen moves in the opposite direction: it continues to push technocratic and hyper-regulatory models, inspired by a progressive and globalist vision—one that is now even more dangerously driven by ideological russophobia, risking an uncontrollable military escalation, possibly dragging the continent (and the world) into a devastating global conflict. It is a political line inherited from the elites defeated in the U.S. in 2016 and again in 2024, yet still dominant in Brussels.
In this context, invoking a generic “West” united by supposed “common values” is not just naive — it is misleading. There can be no unity when the very principles that underlie peaceful coexistence among nations are being contested by one of the parties involved.
A Missed Opportunity
Meloni could have seized the opportunity to align Italy with the paradigm shift unfolding in Washington, positioning the country as a bridge toward a renewed Western vision — one more rooted in sovereignty, less subordinated to ideology, and more inclined toward peace than perpetual war.
Instead, she chose to reinforce a framework of alliances that now belongs to the past, as if to salvage the remnants of the old Euro-Atlantic order. In doing so, she paradoxically weakened the chance to redefine the West, which today does not need rhetorical calls for unity, but rather a deep strategic and value-based refoundation.
We Don’t Need a Summit — We Need a Vision
The West doesn’t need to be “reunited” under generic slogans — it must be rebuilt on new foundations. The Trump–Vance administration represents a historic opportunity to rethink transatlantic relations on the basis of reciprocity, respect, and reality, moving beyond globalist frameworks and ideological interference.
If the EU wants to remain a credible player, it must abandon its progressive-globalist posture, recover its cultural and political roots, and stop championing an ideology that divides rather than unites.
Italy Could Have Been a Bridge
Italy had a real chance to act as a bridge between two visions. But to do that, it would have had to take a side. Not the side of appearances — but the side of truth.
The Real Point
The contrast between Trump–Vance and the EU is now a structural ideological rift.
At the Munich Security Conference, Vance made this unmistakably clear:
“Europe’s enemy is not Russia or China — it is the internal loss of its founding values.”
The EU is dominated by technocratic, progressive, and russophobic elites.
The new American approach, by contrast, is realist, sovereignist, non-interventionist, and rooted in traditional values.
So we must ask:
Is Meloni expecting both sides to “give something up” for the sake of a superficial compromise?
Or is she envisioning a true meeting around renewed shared values, which the EU seems to have lost?
To unite the West cannot mean erasing differences. It requires first rediscovering its roots.