Alessandro Nardone, a strategic consultant and author of 11 books, is a leading Italian expert on American politics. He covered Trump and Zelensky’s campaigns for outlets like Vanity Fair, and his fictional 2016 GOP candidacy as ‘Alex Anderson’ became a global case study. He writes for La Voce del Patriota and is the coordinator of Fratelli d’Italia in Como.
We spoke with him about his latest book, Never Surrender – The Real Donald Trump.
What do you think of Trump’s strong measures in his new term?
He has done more in two weeks than Biden did in four years. Trump’s second presidency is going to be a revolution, and that should come as no surprise. Trump has worked for four years to win the election while having a very clear idea of what he wanted to do when back in power. In these two weeks, he has revolutionised not only the United States, but the whole of international geopolitics—and this is only the beginning.
It seems that Trump’s policies are more aggressive than in his previous term.
Yes, this is very important for the United States and also for us. Trump wants to restore traditional values and obliterate Woke, a movement that can only be defined as evil—it has caused a lot of damage to the younger generation with gender theory.
More importantly, he wants to “drain the swamp,” that is, to end the ‘Deep State,’ one of the most serious evils in the United States and also in Europe. In Italy, we have a deep state trying to counter the government of Giorgia Meloni and also a very dangerous superstate, the European Union, which works for globalist ideas.
The Left is panicking about Trump’s tariff policy and repeats over and over again that this policy is against Europe, but it is not true. The policy must be applied against products from China and all countries that seek to weaken our economy. That is the reality, even if the media say otherwise.
Where does your interest in Donald Trump come from?
I wrote my latest book in May 2024, although it is not the only book I have written about Donald Trump; I have been following him since 2015. First in the wake of my fake candidacy for President of the United States and then as a correspondent at the Republican Convention and during the elections. I witnessed the birth of the MAGA movement, met Steve Bannon and collaborated with his ‘War Room’, and saw how Trump managed to unite the Republican Party, which was very divided, under this new vision.
I covered his first presidency as a journalist and an enthusiastic commentator for Italy, and continued to do so after the 2020 election, because I was convinced that he would win in 2024.
In this book, I present the real Donald Trump, juxtaposed to his flawed portrayal bythe mainstream media, which has dedicated itself to spreading fake news about him on a daily basis. Donald Trump has been the most demonised leader in history.
How does your book present Trump differently?
First, there is the businessman whom we have seen use the “art of the deal” (Editor’s note: Art of the Deal is a 1987 book by Donald Trump.) with Mexico or Canada, and who knows how to bring others to his side. Then there is the communicator Trump, with his own style that he has turned into a personal brand. And the political Trump, who appeared in the 1980s.
His first experience in the political world was the construction of a skating rink in Central Park that New York politicians had promised but were unable to finish; Trump, who was then very young and working in the real estate business, did it in record time and showed that he was capable of doing what others could not.
In 2000, he made his first exploratory presidential bid with Ross Perot’s Reform Party and published a book, The America We Deserve in which he anticipated many things: the terrorist danger, the economic crisis of 2008, and the rivalry with China. This shows that Trump always had an ‘America First’ political mentality, which he is now carrying forward as president.
Finally, the book ends with the election campaign in its geopolitical context for America and Europe, and the fake news campaign that surrounded it. Everything I have written in the book has come true, something I am very proud of, and it is proof of how important it is to know the truth.
Why did you run as a fake candidate in the 2016 Republican primaries?
One of my 2015 books is a spy novel about Alex Anderson, a young Republican politician. The book was very well received in Italy and was translated into English. I, as a journalist, was following the American campaign and, to promote the book in the United States, I used my image and this fake candidate, Alex Anderson. I used a Twitter account and a website for the campaign, and because BBC World News published a story about this campaign, everybody became aware of ‘the Italian candidate for the White House’. Thanks to this story, all the doors opened for me at the Republican Convention, and I was able to meet Donald Trump’s entourage.
This idea of Trump as an enemy of Europe has been endlessly repeated n, and yet we see that he has a good relationship with European leaders such as Giorgia Meloni or Viktor Orbán.
Yes, with Giorgia Meloni and many other patriots. It is necessary for those on the Right to work together because I believe this is a one-time occasion in history. . What we need more than ever is one thing: courage. We must not be seduced by the messages of the European Union or Ursula von der Leyen, we must do what is necessary to revive the European economy and put it back on its feet. We are Europe, we have ‘Made in Italy,’ ‘Made in Spain,’ we do not need China. That was the policy of Romano Prodi and the technocrats working for Beijing and it has destroyed European economies. We have to change.
In Italy, a judge wants to prosecute Giorgia Meloni in a case reminiscent of Matteo Salvini’s. Is the aim to intimidate the Meloni government?
Of course it is. Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini have suffered these attacks for wanting to reform, among other things, our judicial system. As Giorgia says, if judges want to govern, let them stand for election. We in Italy, like Trump in the United States, have popular support because we deliver what we promised in our election campaign and we are not driven by personal interests. For us, politics is about passion, love for the homeland and also for a Europe of traditions and values that has nothing to do with what the European Union is now.
