New World Order: Chapter 18
** The Meloni Factor.
The World Order is changing and a new order is emerging. That is the theme of past 17 chapters. In Chapter 12 it was explained that Italy is going to play a major role in the new order, with all its resources especially the tactical position of its ports. India and Italy concluded many treaties in this regard. In Chapter 16, it was explained how USA missed the bus of New World Order. For the first time, USA will have no say in the most consequential trade events in the world which are creating two new trade routes across Eurasia.
The question this chapter asks is whether that structural fact has consequences for how Washington behaves toward the people building those routes. The answer, I will argue, is yes. We cannot prove it in a court of law. But the pattern is legible.
Trump vs. Meloni
Trump claimed that Meloni had begged him for a photograph at the G7 in France and that he agreed out of pity. Meloni released a video calling the story completely fabricated and told him Italy does not beg. Italy’s foreign minister cancelled a planned visit to Washington. Trump doubled down, insisting she had asked repeatedly, and linked the dispute to Italy’s position on Iran and NATO contributions.
The media called it a personality clash between two right-wing leaders who were once allies and are now falling out. That explanation is not wrong but just a lazy one.
Modi and Meloni
Trump was warm about Modi when they met at the G7 summit. Though Modi is the principal architect of the trade corridor that is cutting America out of Eurasian commerce. Meloni is merely the European hinge of that same corridor.
What Trump is doing to Meloni, has been tried on Modi, last year. Though Trump maintained his sweet talk, his cabinet members called him names. Called India names. But unlike Melodi he did not respond. Stoic silence was his response. As if nothing happened. Here are the details:
White House advisor and trade hawk Peter Navarro used a controversial casteist and Hinduphobic trope when justifying the tariffs imposed on Indian goods, accusing Indian elites of exploitation. He also criticized PM Modi’s diplomatic positioning with Russia and China in highly unconventional and informal terms:
“The Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.”
“I don’t understand why [Prime Minister Modi] is getting into bed with Putin and Xi Jinping when he’s the biggest democracy in the world.”
Trump’s Comments on India’s Economy and Energy Security1
President Donald Trump disparaged India’s economic progress on social media, declaring it a “dead economy.” In addition to attacking India’s trade policy, he mockingly suggested that India’s energy situation was so weak that they would eventually have to rely on their neighbor for fuel:
“dead economy”
[Trump] mockingly suggested India might one day need to purchase oil from Pakistan.
Howard Lutnick’s “Countries to Fix” Comment1
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke with NewsNation regarding rising trade tensions and India’s ongoing imports of Russian oil. During the interview, he grouped India with other sovereign nations that the U.S. needed to “fix” to protect American interests:
“We have a bunch of countries to fix, like Switzerland, Brazil, like India. These are countries that need to really react correctly to America… [they] need to open their markets and stop taking actions that harm America… have to play ball with the president of the United States.”
Kevin Hassett and Scott Bessent’s Mockery and “Modi’s War” Label1
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House advisor Kevin Hassett joined in the rhetorical campaign against India, targeting India’s financial stability and placing the blame for the regional fallout of the Ukraine war directly on PM Modi’s leadership:
[They] joined the “barrage of attacks,” mocking the Indian rupee and even branding the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s War.”
U.S. Officials Calling Indian Leaders “Stupid”2
In analyses discussing the U.S. tariff policy, it is noted that U.S. trade officials have actively insulted the intelligence of Indian leadership by calling them “stupid” for defending their country’s own economic interests:
“[Young Indian professionals] witness American trade officials using terms like “brahmin” as colonial slurs. They see their democratically elected leaders as “stupid” for protecting their country’s economic sovereignty.”
When all this did not yield any result, and his tariff were struck down by court, Trump changed his policy. He started to woo Modi with flattering words.
When Modi lands in Rome and the two eternal cities sign a Special Strategic Partnership with IMEC at its centre, and Italy appoints a dedicated IMEC envoy, and the first IMEC ministerial is scheduled for 2026, and all of this happens without Washington’s involvement, someone in Washington notices.
When you cannot address the structural problem, you address the person standing nearest to it. Meloni was there. It was hoped that like other European leaders she will take it with a grin but Trump was wrong. She retaliated with full force.
The hard feelings for Meloni who is slowly moving away from the axis of USA dominated world is natural. Spat may not undo the loss to America but may help cope with it by catharsis.
The American Loss
America launched IMEC at the G20 in September 2023. It signed the memorandum of understanding. It got the headlines. Then it walked away, assuming the corridor would stall without American participation. This is how the world had worked for seventy years. No major trade architecture achieved global scale without American backing. The assumption was historically justified. Justified assumptions are not questioned.
What America did not understand is that it handed India and Europe the institutional framework and then left the ground while they built their house on it. A trade corridor that is self-financing, democratically governed, technologically neutral, and operationally distributed across thirty countries is impossible to sanction, impossible to threaten, and impossible to shut down by withdrawing from it.
The Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act introduced in the US Senate in April 2026 is a legislative attempt to restate American relevance to a corridor that started physical construction in April 2025 without waiting for Washington’s endorsement. Writing a memo about a bus that has already left is not the same as driving it.
The Spat as Symptom
The spat may temporarily take attention away from America’s fiasco over Iran. It may also vent hard feelings toward Meloni, who is slowly moving away from a USA-dominated world. Neither of these is the whole story.
Trump was effusive about Modi when they met. He spoke of a great friendship, great deals, great future. Yet Modi is the one building the trade corridor that cuts America out of Eurasian commerce. Meloni is merely the European hinge of that corridor. The difference in Trump’s treatment of the two leaders maps cleanly onto what each represents. Modi brings things Trump can claim credit for. Meloni brings a reminder of what America lost and has no mechanism to recover.
Meloni understood her own position before Trump did. Her sharp rebuttal was not only about dignity, though dignity was the language she chose. It was also the signal that Italy has options now that it did not have five years ago. A country that is the European terminal of the world’s most consequential emerging trade corridor does not need to absorb insults quietly. She pushed back because she could afford to.
The truth is we will never know exactly what was said in the room at the G7. The photo dispute will not be resolved by either side backing down. But the pattern is legible without the private details.
An Anticipation
I will stick my neck out. This will not be the last such spat. Every nation that has chosen to build on the IMEC or Arctic corridor without waiting for Washington’s blessing will face a similar moment sooner or later. Norway, Cyprus, UAE, Saudi Arabia or some other country. The trigger will always look trivial from the outside: a photo, a comment, a trade figure cited incorrectly, a defence deal announced without consultation. The real cause will always be the same structural displacement expressing itself through available targets.
Frustration is human. A superpower watching the world’s most consequential trade architecture being assembled without it, and without any mechanism to stop it, will find its outlet somewhere.
Non diplomacy by USA in diplomatic matters is New American Order hoping to undo New World Order.
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