US VP Vance attends Olympic skating, meets Italian PM Meloni
Vice President JD Vance on Friday met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — one of the Trump administration’s closer allies in Europe — during his trip to Italy for the Olympic Games. Vance is on a weeklong visit that combines sports and diplomacy, meeting with Meloni at a time when US relations with Europe have become increasingly strained under President Donald Trump, who has shaken up the rules-based order that has been at the centre of US foreign policy since World War II.
The vice president started his day at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, watching the opening session of the three-day team figure skating competition with his family and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In the evening, he attended the Olympics opening ceremony. Cheers went up for US athletes when they entered, but an image of Vance shown on screens was met with boos — a further sign of relations between Washington and Europe that have become strained under Trump.
The vice president was attending with his wife Usha, who was sitting next to former International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach. Earlier, Vance’s meeting with Meloni saw him headed to the Prefettura di Milano, a Milan palace now used as a municipal building. Their face-to-face lasted about an hour and was followed by a closed-door lunch. Only a few minutes at the top of the meeting were open to the press, and Meloni began her remarks in Italian. After a moment, she switched to English, joking that Vance probably did not understand what she had been saying.
