A Trump Tower Neighbor Is the Point Man for Europe’s Populists
But he said Mr. Trump has leaned on his Italian expertise, inquiring once about Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, because, Mr. Lombardi said, Mr. Trump was intrigued by a "billionaire who became a politician." Mr. Lombardi said on a panel in the Italian Parliament last year
that Mr. Trump invited Mr. Berlusconi to America last Christmas, but received no reply.
With a deep suspicion of Islam, open borders and the European Union, Mr. Lombardi, 66, considers himself a bridge to Mr. Trump for his old friends
and ideological allies in Europe, including Marine Le Pen of France, Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and Beppe Grillo, the co-founder of Italy’s insurgent Five Star Movement — "the Trump of Italy," as Mr. Lombardi calls him.
Mr. Lombardi said that in reality his wife could not immediately procure permits to send her husband’s body back to his Italian birthplace,
but the story amounted to "good advertising." While his second wife introduced him to Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago circle, Mr. Lombardi acted as an unofficial ("always unofficial") representative in the United States of Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League, often called The Lega in Italy.
"But at the same time I understand Europe a lot and I understand what’s going on." What’s going on, he says, is
that Mr. Trump has given hope to politicians trying to harness populist forces, often with the social media tools that Mr. Lombardi himself has used in his capacity as the administrator of Bikers for Trump and about 500 other pro-Trump Facebook groups.
Mr. Trump assented and Mr. Lombardi, who had no professional social media experience, began setting up
a network of Facebook groups to organize support for Mr. Trump and antagonism toward Mrs. Clinton.
" Mr. Lombardi said of Ms. that It was kind of innocent,
Mr. Lombardi expresses fondness for the Jewish people, "our curly friends," he said
referring to the orthodox party that had rented Mar-a-Lago out that afternoon.
