The West’s cognoscenti – perhaps better the “condescenti” – appear to have grossly underestimated Giorgia Meloni, reports Benjamin Braddock in The American Mind. While Italy’s populist new prime minister has, as expected, begun to distance her country from the European Union and crack down on illegal immigration, Meloni’s mature statesmanship and shrewd cultivation of the U.S. are confounding predictions of a rapid flame-out. Making the conservative all the more popular among Italian voters.