Over the Independence Day weekend, the dispute between the two leaders intensified, and Ambassador Tilman J. Fertitta docked his 117-meter-long, seven-deck yacht at the port of Palermo in Sicily to host a large gathering of representatives of the Sicilian elite.
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Guests had the opportunity to admire the yacht’s pools, hot tubs, SPA center offering facial and pedicure treatments, visit the cinema, golf course, stop by numerous bars, and enjoy two helicopters.
They sipped wine, sampled snacks, and posed for photos for the ambassador’s Instagram account. Everyone walked barefoot, as shoes are prohibited on the yacht, in rooms decorated with lacquered wood, adorned with fluorescent artworks and chandeliers.
At that very moment, D. Trump was preparing to mock G. Meloni on social media, stating that he would have to go to court for an order against the Italian Prime Minister that would prohibit the politician from approaching him. It had been only two weeks since he explained that at a world leaders’ meeting she allegedly begged to take a photo with him.
However, it did not seem that the 69-year-old diplomat was bothered by this political quarrel. That weekend on the yacht, he told me he had spoken with both D. Trump and G. Meloni.
“I listened to them both,” he said with a strong Texas accent. “And to me, they both seem right.”
The president is “unhappy with Giorgia Meloni,” T.J. Fertitta admitted during our 90-minute interview, leaning back with his hands on the back of a large sofa, his feet clad in white socks resting on the coffee table.
“And that’s why he announces it to the whole world,” the diplomat added.
However, according to T.J. Fertitta, this does not affect his relationships with either leader or the ties between America and Italy.
There are those who think that, amid one of the biggest public conflicts in history between the US and Italy, T.J. Fertitta is not fulfilling his duties as a diplomat.
D. Trump is still furious over Rome’s decision not to support his war against Iran, while G. Meloni, in turn, has harshly criticized the American president, saying he attacked the pope.
“It sounds like something from a movie, an Italian comedy, like the man who wants to sail along the coast,” said Michele Masneri, a writer and columnist for the independent newspaper Il Foglio.
“I would say that 60 percent of the US ambassador’s job is being a high-level tourist,” M. Masneri added.
The diplomat’s yacht trip has also faced criticism over the expenses borne by the Italian state. An opposition parliamentarian demanded an investigation into how much Italy spends on the police escort ensuring the yacht’s security. The Italian government declined to comment on the matter.
Owner of restaurant and casino empires and the Houston Rockets basketball team, T.J. Fertitta said the result is worth the effort.
“How many people ever get the chance to step onto such a ship?” the ambassador rhetorically asked, referring to the Boardwalk, the sixth yacht he has named as such.
“People love successful people. Everyone wants to be successful. And anyone who says they don’t just lies,” he said.
T.J. Fertitta believes that by giving Italians the chance to see how the richest 0.1 percent of the world live, he helps forge the kind of interpersonal connections ambassadors should nurture. Even if – or perhaps especially if – relations between the leaders of his native and host countries are heading toward an abyss.
However, the guests he hosts on his yacht belong to a very narrow segment of Italian society. Last month, the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, attended a reception on the yacht.
“The people I met on the ship,” the diplomat said, “were those representing the city’s ruling class.”
Mariangela Zappia, former Italian ambassador to the United States, said she sees meaning in T.J. Fertitta’s actions because the yacht trip pushes the personal disagreements of both leaders into the “background.”
According to her, the diplomat can “show village by village, port by port, that these relations are truly very lively and thriving.”
The ambassador did not specify how often he communicated with Italian officials, but Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated that the diplomat helps “whenever we need to understand something.”
Political chameleon
T.J. Fertitta stands out even among other politically appointed ambassadors, partly selected as a reward for campaign donations.
According to Forbes’ billionaire ranking, this public official’s wealth is estimated at $11.1 billion. He is undoubtedly the richest ambassador appointed by the Trump administration.
T.J. Fertitta said that last summer, when he first arrived in Rome, he spent about $3 million of his own money renovating the living quarters of the ambassador’s official residence, Villa Taverna.
Although he considers himself a conservative, T.J. Fertitta is a political chameleon, having donated to both major parties, sometimes even during the same election cycle.
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Recently, he has generally donated more to Republicans, but in the 1990s he hosted fundraising parties for President Bill Clinton at his Houston home. Meanwhile, he calls Democratic Senator Mark Kelly a friend.
According to publicly available data, during the 2024 election campaign, he donated $13,200 to Kamala Harris’s campaign and allocated about half a million dollars to Trump’s political action committees.
He explained that rather than adhering to strict party commitments, he is “a loyal American.”
Emphasizing his political flexibility, T.J. Fertitta noted that Italian officials were “smart enough to understand” that they would not be working with Trump forever.
“Just because one president and one administration want to act one way doesn’t mean that after two and a half years another president won’t act differently,” the Texas-born diplomat assessed.
In fact, T.J. Fertitta admitted that he first dreamed of the ambassadorial post in Italy while fundraising for B. Clinton’s campaign.
But at that time, he was too busy trying to expand his business empire. Several of his business partners in Houston admitted they did not expect him to actually want to take on this role this time either.
John Whitmire, Houston’s Democratic mayor, called T.J. Fertitta one of the most important people they have in networking in Houston and said he was surprised that he wanted to trade his business empire for a post in Rome.
But now “I think he enjoys the significance of the ambassador’s duties,” the Houston mayor noted.
Fertitta’s great-grandparents emigrated from Sicily more than 130 years ago, and he himself has long tried to maintain ties with Italy. In 2021, he attempted to acquire the Italian football team AC Milan, which previously belonged to the late former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who died in 2023.
Fertitta’s offer was about $200 million less than his competitor’s.
“I was foolish,” he said.
T.J. Fertitta said that Italy was actually the only country he would have considered as a diplomatic posting. However, he admitted he does not speak Italian. This summer, at the Independence Day celebration held at the ambassador’s residence in Rome, he even struggled to pronounce the names of some ministers he introduced on stage as his friends.
Ambassador-sailor
The diplomat’s choice of sea routes is determined by both whim and diplomacy, forcing the Italian police escorts traveling with him to adapt quickly.
When the yacht sailed around Sicily, he and his wife Lauren Fertitta noticed the village of Acciaroli. “I said, ‘Look at this cute little town,’” T.J. Fertitta recalled. “Let’s stop there.”
The town’s mayor Stefano Pisani said the Naples consulate gave him about 15 minutes to prepare for the ambassador’s unexpected visit. Despite the short notice, the mayor gladly agreed to help: he organized a three-hour tour for the ambassador and invited him to lunch.
But such visits feel like a small expeditionary force’s incursion.
On July 4, after receiving advance notice, the yacht Boardwalk docked at the famous port of Cefalù in Sicily. The ambassador’s entourage arrived by two boats, carrying his wife, youngest daughter, two adult sons, a group of friends, Italian security agents, and yacht crew members.
Curious onlookers waded knee-deep into the water to take photos, seemingly unaware of who T.J. Fertitta was, although one man raised his fist in the air and shouted, “Viva Trump!”
Dressed in linen shirts and official sneakers, T.J. Fertitta walked around the town with the mayor of Cefalù, where his great-grandfather lived before sailing to the United States in 1887.
At the town hall, the diplomat gave the mayor a copy of his book “Shut Up and Listen!” in Italian, met more than 15 distant relatives, posed for photos, and described the previous day as “one of the most special I’ve ever had.”
The bishop of Cefalù, Giuseppe Marciante, showed T.J. Fertitta the marriage register, where his family’s ties to the town could be traced back to the 16th century.
Later, the ambassador gave the bishop an engraved silver dish.
“My name is engraved here,” he said. “I don’t want you to forget me.”
When T.J. Fertitta returned to the yacht, I asked if he liked his job. He looked puzzled.
“I really don’t consider anything entertainment,” the ambassador said. However, he then added, “It’s a very pleasant job.”
According to him, he would consider returning to Italy for a second ambassadorial term, even under a different government: “I wouldn’t care who the president was.”
However, he himself “has no desire” to run for elected office.
“Because there’s no job I could do and at the same time be on this yacht,” T.J. Fertitta said.
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This article was published in The New York Times.
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