Trump envoy’s tour on $450mn superyacht stirs anger in Italy
Rome declines to reveal cost of security for billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta’s ‘coastal diplomacy’
Donald Trump’s ambassador to Italy, Texas-based billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta, has triggered controversy with a two-month diplomatic outreach tour of Italian seaside towns on his private $450mn superyacht.
In celebration of the 250th independence anniversary of the US and to reaffirm US-Italy ties, Fertitta’s 117-metre vessel is cruising to 13 of Italy’s best-known coastal cities — including Palermo and northern ports such as Venice, Genoa and Trieste.
Along the way, Fertitta — whose entertainment and hospitality empire includes the Houston Rockets basketball team, the Golden Nugget casino business and Landry’s restaurants — is inviting politicians, business leaders and military personnel to visit him on the luxurious vessel Boardwalk, which has a swimming pool, mini-golf course and helipads.
Before the “coastal diplomacy” cruise got under way last month, the US embassy in Rome said Fertitta — whose grandparents emigrated to the US from the Sicilian town of Cefalù, which he also visited — “will personally fund the Boardwalk’s trip”.
The statement said the trip would allow Fertitta, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at nearly $11bn, to “connect personally with Italian people along Italy’s coastline”. It comes as many Italians are reeling from Trump’s verbal attacks on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, once one of his most stalwart allies.
But there has been an outcry over the huge security operation — including a special sea surveillance mission, involving boats and helicopters from the Italian coastguard, financial police and port authorities — required to protect the ambassador and his superyacht during their voyage.
A lawmaker from the Green Left Alliance, Luana Zanella, raised the issue in parliament on Friday morning, slamming Fertitta’s tour on his “gigantic, ultra-luxurious” yacht as little more than a “diplomatic vacation” at the cost of the cash-strapped Italian state. “This display of opulence is not right,” Zanella, who comes from Venice, said.
Valentino Valentini, vice-minister of business and industry, gave no estimate of the cost of the security operation, but said Rome was obliged under the Vienna Convention to ensure the safety, freedom and dignity of all foreign ambassadors to Italy, including with “the provision of a special guard” if necessary.
He said Fertitta had been deemed a high-risk target, entitled to “first-level exceptional protection” at all times. The Boardwalk, he said, was also entitled to protection as it was serving as Fertitta’s temporary residence, means of transport and venue for institutional meetings.
Fertitta and the US embassy in Rome have not commented publicly on the criticisms, and the US state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Boardwalk arrives in Venice on Friday, where Fertitta is expected to face angry protests from a group of locals.
‘‘It’s a very weird way to do diplomacy,” said researcher and activist Stella Faye, who is helping to organise the protests. “It’s very emblematic of the political model that Trump is trying to build joining political and economic power.”
Fertitta’s visit coincides with the city’s annual Redentore festival, which celebrates the end of a devastating plague in 1576. The Boardwalk is set to be docked along what is normally a prime public viewing spot for fireworks.
But an Italian foreign ministry official said the superyacht tour had become a cruise of “friendship and fun”, helping to reaffirm the ambassador’s personal goodwill towards Italy, after a turbulent period in the bilateral relationship.
Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister, told the FT that Fertitta was playing an important role as an interlocutor between Meloni’s government and the Trump administration, and responding to Rome’s concerns in an “active, sensitive and above all, consistently positive manner”.
