MILAN, Italy — While President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni may have been somewhat feuding over Trump’s criticisms of Pope Leo XIV and NATO during the Iran war, there remains deep ties between the movements that elected both of the leaders in their respective countries.
Matteo Salvini, the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and leader of the Lega or League political party that rounds out the coalition that put Meloni in as Prime Minister, held a huge rally a couple weeks ago in Duomo Square here in Milan alongside other major European conservatives like Jordan Bardella from France and Geert Wilders from the Netherlands. During his address, he told the crowd that President Trump is “our ally” and “our friend,” and that “every misunderstanding will be settled very soon.”
Salvini sat down in late February with Breitbart News for an exclusive interview here, a lengthy conversation on populist politics and his views on Trump and major issues facing Europe, the United States, and the world. Salvini spoke to Breitbart News in Italian, and the quotes throughout this interview were translated by one of his top advisers while speaking with Breitbart News. The interview came as Breitbart News was in Milan for the Winter Olympics to see Team USA win the Gold Medal in men’s hockey and was one of the first major interviews Salvini has given since he won a year-long battle to defeat lawfare efforts against his moves to stop migrant ships from coming into Italy. Salvini, when he was Minister of Interior in the coalition government in 2019, prevented a ship full of migrants from unloading those migrants into Italy. Since then, prosecutors have come after him alleging he kidnapped these migrants by not letting them into Italy, and he faced multiple charges including cases that were dismissed and now ultimately he has been acquitted on the charges.
Salvini told Breitbart News he is relieved that he has been acquitted.
“First of all, for our American friends, this is one of my first interviews after being acquitted following five years of trial related to immigration. So, we have some experience,” Salvini told Breitbart News. “The positive thing is that our strong position, as the League and as Italy, has spread across Europe — even to left-wing governments. So, it is no longer only a battle of the League or of Italy, but a feeling across Europe. That said, there are some European countries — I’m thinking of France — that I don’t know if they are still salvageable. The last opportunity will be the choice between the current government and our good friends Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen to try to save what can be saved. In Italy, arrivals are decreasing. Obviously, we are fighting with parts of the judiciary that challenge our laws. The objective this year is to approve all the security decrees in Parliament, then win the elections and return to the Interior Ministry. I would not wish going to trial on anyone — five years for this case and another year for another trial. Six years, every month in court. But it clearly established that blocking the landings was legal.”
Salvini’s fight in the court system in Italy over migration is very similar to Trump’s fights with liberal judges on immigration. Asked if he has any advice for Trump, he said he does not think Trump needs it because Trump is winning on his own.
“I don’t think President Trump needs my advice, also because he has a much longer border, and it is land-based, which makes it more difficult but at the same time also easier to manage,” Salvini told Breitbart News. “The images that have come out are absolutely impressive. I don’t know how the media system in the United States handles immigration, because in Italy almost all of them are against our line.”
Salvini’s rise in Italian politics has coincided with populist forces surging across the continent, and he has been arguably one of if not the most successful populist conservatives in Europe. He first surged into office as Deputy Prime Minister in a coalition government with the leftist Five Star Movement back in the late 2010s, and then returned to power as Deputy Prime Minister again now in a broader conservative coalition where his party has joined forces with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the party Forza Italia — which was founded by the late former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Salvini’s work on immigration has been central to his political career. He speaks about immigration in economic and cultural terms in addition to ideological terms.
“In Italy there is also a strong economic interest from some sectors in having this enormous mass of desperate people — to exploit them and to make them vote,” Salvini told Breitbart News. “So, it is not only an ideological issue. It is also a business issue. There is the ideology of journalists, magistrates, trade unions, but there is also a strong economic interest behind it, because it is a multi-billion-euro business every year. For example, when we reduced arrivals from 150,000 a year to 10,000 a year, we saved two billion euros in one year for the state.”
Salvini also warned about the rise of Islam in the West, saying that in Italy in February several schools canceled classes for Ramadan. “Some schools suspended lessons and exams for Islamic students because of Ramadan,” Salvini told Breitbart News. “That is madness.”
“No one suspends anything when Catholic students fast for Easter. It is really a change of culture, a change in the way of living,” Salvini added. “And from the point of view of security, the link between parts of the extreme left and Islamist extremists in the name of chaos is now proven.”
Salvini said because of the threats to western civilization that citizens are feeling everywhere from immigration, he is sensing a movement growing across Europe that falls much more in line with common sense policies he and Trump have championed. He noted that the recent speeches warning Europe from the United States — last year by Vice President JD Vance and this year by Secretary of State Marco Rubio — even though they had different tones had similar positive effects.
“What I was saying before is spreading across the European continent — this awareness,” Salvini said. “Even in countries that were once much more open-minded, like Sweden and Denmark, because they are suffering from this presence. And of course there are problems in the UK. Things are moving in the right direction on immigration almost everywhere, except in Brussels. Any intervention from the American administration tends to reinforce this, even if with different tones between Vance and Rubio — but the theme is the same.”
Salvini told Breitbart News that he “loved both messages,” from Rubio and from Vance.
“I loved the messages,” he said. “Even though the Italian and European media tried to say that Vance was the bad one and Rubio the good one. But both messages are to be read and listened to. Both want to dialogue with Europe, but they ask Europe to return to itself. Relations between Italy and the United States are excellent, even if the entire Italian media system tries to portray President Trump as unstable. Not only the left-wing system — also in the so-called moderate and center-right media, attacks on President Trump are daily. With Mr. Vance, we spoke for a few minutes at the Royal Palace on the day of the inauguration of the Olympic Games. He has a beautiful personal, family, and political story — meaningful, not obvious, very significant.”
Asked why he thinks so many in media in Europe attack Trump so much, he said it is because many of them are elderly leftists with history of European left-versus-right fights.
“In some Italian newspapers and newsrooms there are people in their 60s and 70s who come from historical left-wing battles,” Salvini said. “Many publishers have economic interests on the left. And it is more fashionable, it leaves your conscience more at peace, to attack Trump, attack Salvini, defend open borders and friendship with the whole world.”
Salvini also spoke highly of the late Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last year. Salvini said Kirk “impressed many young people in Italy, and also me,” and said his story is “of a battle carried all the way through.” Salvini added that he thinks places such as Breitbart News are targeted just like Kirk was, because of the effectiveness of outlets like this one and the impact outlets like Breitbart News have on the future.
“I think Charlie Kirk has been targeted, and you have been targeted, because you completely change the narrative,” Salvini said. “You make ideas like pro-life, pro-security, anti-woke appealing to young people, who are the future. The difference is that you have economic resources that we do not have.”
Salvini has lots of experience in championing populist policies, dating back to when he was in the coalition government with the leftist Five Star Movement in 2018 to 2019, and told Breitbart News that he likes “to learn from every experience.”
“The government with the Five Star Movement was born to avoid chaos, because there were no other majorities possible,” Salvini said when asked for lessons to be learned from that time. “Our center-right allies told me: go into government with them or nobody knows what will happen. We did important things everywhere. We imposed our way of seeing things, let’s put it that way. Also economically, with the flat tax and pension reform. Then there was the coalition government during COVID, with everyone inside except Meloni, who was smart and later benefited of that choice. Lega has 500 mayors and is at the government in most of the Italian regions. Staying outside the national government at that moment, with Italy “closed” because of COVID, would have been complicated. As a party, it cost us a lot politically. But now we are in government, we intend to remain in government, and we intend to grow. What Lega has today, that we never had before, is a strong European alliance and stronger ties with the United States. Giorgia Meloni is excellent, very skilled in international relations and personal relationships with leaders. That is good for the economy and for relations between countries.”
When asked about energy policy, Salvini said that Europe has been far too dependent on Russia for natural gas and implored Italians to pursue nuclear power.
“The energy issue is fundamental, also considering what is happening with Russia,” Salvini said. “In Italy we are among those who most hope for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and the end of the isolation of Russia. The relationship with the United States is fundamental for the Italian economy and for European stability. Unfortunately, there are those who work against peace, but I hope the data will lead toward the end of the conflict. I fear that some types of relations will never return as they were. And I fear we have done a great favor to China and other powers. But it is possible to fix it. One issue where Italy is firm, and where Lega insists, is the return to nuclear energy. Italy has not produced nuclear power for decades. The majority of the population, according to polls, would now be in favor. There are more than 400 plants operating in the world — from the United States to Russia to China to France.”
Salvini also warned about the threats of rising Chinese influence worldwide. He said he personally has warm relations with them and has visited China for work, but warned that China’s overwhelming numbers of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates every year are astounding. He also said it’s “clear” that China has a very different cultural and political system than the United States and Europe.
“I lead a very technical ministry — infrastructure, transport and public works — and I study what the Chinese have done and are doing,” Salvini said. “Every year almost two million engineers graduate in China, with four million STEM graduates annually. They built 48,000 kilometers of high-speed rail in just a few years and will reach 60,000 by 2035. In Italy we are working to reach 2,000. I imagine that what President Trump is doing is the extreme attempt to avoid what would otherwise be an evident dominance. China’s influence in Africa is growing, BRICS is growing, demography is punishing Europe. Without a shock, in 30 years we may be all speaking Chinese. I have good relations, I go to the embassy when invited, I have been to Shanghai and Beijing for work, but it is clearly a different cultural and political model from ours. President Trump does not wake up in the morning talking about tariffs because he is bored. It is clear that there is a project, an objective. The problem, for example, going back to Europe, it seems like some countries — I’m thinking of Spain — are accepting to become a redistribution platform for Chinese products. So, it is clear that in this way the battle is difficult to win.”
Salvini wrapped up the interview by thanking Trump for what he is doing to build out a worldwide movement to help populist nationalists succeed and saying he hopes to visit the United States soon and possibly even meet with Vance again at some point.
“I thank President Trump for the courage and for the cultural foundation he is giving to an economic and political project, because it is fundamental to give a cultural, value-based and ideal foundation — otherwise everything passes,” Salvini said. “It seems to me that this is the difference between the first and the second term of President Trump: that now there is much more focus, also with figures like Vance, on a deep cultural setting and not only on surface economic issues. It is what we are also trying, with difficulty, to do. We were the only ones who openly supported President Trump, both in the first and in the second term. It was a good conversation [with Vance]. I hope the next one will take place in the United States. I hope to be able to come to America soon. We are working on a mission to the U.S. on public works, infrastructure and railways, and I hope to be able to carry it out within the year.”
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