Spectacle – shock and awe – is the name of the game in 2025 in Trumpian America, just as it was in imperial Rome

C onflicting SIGNALS are reaching the new American administration from Rome. And some carry a whiff of incense. While Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was preparing to fly to Washington to schmooze President Donald Trump and his chums, a leader on the other side of the Tiber was communicating stark disapproval of their plans.

ROME — Pope Francis said Donald Trump’s plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants would be a “disgrace,” as he weighed in on the incoming U.S. president’s pledges nearly a decade after calling him “not Christian” for wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

He hails a fantastic woman sweeping all before her in Europe. She praises a strong and shrewd defender of the West. Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni are fast forging a new transatlantic "special relationship".

With Donald Trump’s inauguration as president on Monday, we contemplate the impact his administration could have on our democracy. Historians Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Timothy Snyder have drawn from 20th-century political disasters to warn us about the dangers of dictatorship.

Vatican City • Donald Trump might not be president yet ... Trump adviser Steve Bannon attempted to create a monastery near Rome to prepare the next generation of Catholic conservatives, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to the Vatican ...

After forging unexpectedly fond ties with President Biden, Italy’s right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni is poised to leverage a more natural alliance with incoming President Trump that positions her as a key interlocutor between the U.

A gesture associated with the Nazis has a surprising history. But in Germany, there was little doubt about its meaning.

This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers January 18 to January 24.

The pope’s comments provided the latest indication of a potential rekindling of frictions between the Vatican and the next Trump White House.

President Donald Trump predicted a new golden age of America in his inaugural address. Past golden ages haven't been golden for everyone.

The U.S. Air Force has removed training courses for service members that included historical videos of its storied Black Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs — female World War II pilots.