Marco Rubio to meet pope this week after Trump’s broadside against Leo

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will meet Pope Leo on Thursday, weeks after Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside against the pontiff.

Rubio will meet the first US-born pope privately in the Vatican’s apostolic palace at 11.30am (10.30 GMT), the Holy See’s press office confirmed on Monday after media reports on Sunday.

Rubio will also meet the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, and the Italian foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Antonio Tajani, during a two-day visit reportedly intended to thaw Washington’s frosty relations with Rome and the Holy See.

He had also asked to meet the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a foreign ministry source told the Guardian on Sunday, but the request had not yet been granted. Speaking in Yerevan at a gathering of the European Political Community, Meloni indicated she would probably meet Rubio.

The trip, which coincides with the first anniversary of Leo’s papacy, comes weeks after Trump lashed out at the pope over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Trump called him weak and said he was not doing a very good job as pontiff.

Trump then shared an AI-generated image depicting himself as Christ before deleting it and saying it had actually been a portrayal of him as a doctor.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, also criticised the pope, saying the Vatican should “stick to matters of morality” and that Leo should be careful when it came to talking about theology and war.

Trump also berated Meloni, previously one of his closest allies in Europe, after she criticised his remarks about Leo, rebuking her government for not supporting the strikes on Iran and threatening to withdraw US troops from Italy as a result.

Rubio and Vance attended the pope’s inauguration in May last year and had a private audience with him the day after, during which they handed him an invitation from Trump to the White House that Leo has not yet taken up.

In response to Trump’s outburst in April, he said he did not fear the US administration and continued to speak out against the war on Iran.