Elkann and Trump as Seen by the Democratic Party. “Embarrassing”, Says Vice President Gribaudo

The faces of the Juventus players in the photo taken in the Oval Office two days ago spoke clearly, suspended as they were between shock and consternation, during the meeting between the team, brought by Exor CEO John Elkann, and American President Donald Trump. And Carlo Calenda's sarcasm spoke even more clearly, on X, the day after, in the post in which the leader of Azione commented on the "beautiful scene" that appeared in the photo: "Elkann with a clown's smile and the tailored t-shirt offered to Trump, while he talks about bombings and other amenities. I would say humiliating for Italy", wrote Calenda, adding to the sarcastic comment the phrase of doubling (of derision): "You will find in La Stampa and La Repubblica - who daily attack Trump and Meloni for being subservient to the US President, a harsh warning for Elkann... maybe tomorrow though. PS Not to mention the humiliation inflicted on the players, forced to watch Trump's ravings in beautiful statuette mode by order of the 'little boss'". Forty-eight hours pass and the Juventus players add words to their perplexed faces. Here is the American Timothy Weah expressing his disappointment: “It was all a surprise to me, honestly,” Weah said: “They told us we had to go and I had no choice, but it took me by surprise, really. It was a little weird. When Trump started talking about politics, Iran and all that, it was like: 'Hey, I just want to play football, man'”. But what do they think in the Democratic Party, the main opposition party led by Elly Schlein and loved by Repubblica, the daily newspaper of the Gedi group, of which Exor is a shareholder? “The meeting was, to say the least, embarrassing — and I'm not the only one saying that: the expressions of some Juventus players and their subsequent statements prove it”, Chiara Gribaudo, deputy and vice president of the Democratic Party, told Il Foglio (who has spoken out several times in the Chamber on the Stellantis case, asking the government to report on the automotive industry's industrial policy). “Frankly,” says Gribaudo, “I don’t think it was a pleasure for Juventus fans to see their team behind Donald Trump, while the latter announced the United States’ intention to declare war on Iran. A serious message, launched in a totally inappropriate context. And the embarrassment grew when the topic of women in sports was touched upon: it was clear that Trump wasn’t looking for a confrontation on football or inclusion, but only a stage to relaunch his ideological battle against trans people in sports.” And if you ask Gribaudo if Elkann's visit could have been in any way useful to the country, in the context of the crisis in the automotive sector, the vice president of the Democratic Party says that "it is difficult to believe that all this served any purpose, much less to protect the Italian automotive sector. Elkann is the president of an industrial reality in deep crisis, with structural problems that certainly do not depend only on American tariffs. This is demonstrated by the umpteenth announcement of staff reductions: in Italy alone, over a thousand redundancies, of which six hundred at Mirafiori, a symbol of a progressive and perhaps irreversible impoverishment. I ask myself, honestly: what purpose did this meeting serve? To the fans, to the workers, to Italy? I don't think so". Democratic senator Susanna Camusso, former secretary of the CGIL, also views the meeting critically: "I would say that it confirms that the automotive sector is not the heart of interests", she says, "while for the sector the choices on tariffs, for example, are anything but irrelevant". And, on the eve of today's demonstration against rearmament in Rome, a demonstration that has caused no small amount of embarrassment for the Democratic Party, Camusso says he doesn't want to "get carried away" by his lack of interest in football, but that "the Trump who talks too much" is first and foremost "a problem for him": "From one show to another he destabilizes, while we should put an end to the weapons. Of course, experience could have suggested avoiding giving him an opportunity." Meanwhile, the summit of the foreign ministers of France, Great Britain, Germany and Iran opens (and Trump is stalling: "I'll decide whether to attack within two weeks").