President Donald Trump’s billionaire ambassador to Italy has infuriated members of his host country with plans to “flaunt” his $450 million mega yacht during a weeks-long trip that he’s taken to calling “coastal diplomacy.”
Tilman Fertitta, a hospitality entrepreneur who owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets, announced earlier this month he was traveling the Italian coast to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with business leaders, politicians, and other officials from 13 coastal regions of Italy.
The tour began in Civitavecchia near Rome on June 13 with stops scheduled in Naples, Genoa, Palermo, and Cefalù, where Fertitta’s family traces its roots.
Now it’s been revealed that Fertitta and his Boardwalk — a 380-foot superyacht featuring six decks, two helipads, two swimming pools, and a beach club — will be stopping in Venice next month for one of the city’s most important annual festivals.
The move has drawn the ire of a city still smarting from Jeff Bezos’s lavish 2025 wedding, The Times of London reported.
The timing also couldn’t be more awkward considering the bizarre feud that engulfed Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni following last week’s G7 meeting.
“This is about the exploitation of Venice,” said Federica Toninello of Laboratorio Occupato Morion, a group that protested the Bezos wedding, in an interview with The Times. “Flaunting that level of wealth is a slap in the face to people who are increasingly struggling to make ends meet and find a home in Venice.”
The group is meeting this week to decide how to protest Fertitta’s arrival, which a U.S. embassy source told the Times would coincide with the Festa del Redentore on July 18 and 19.
The annual celebration commemorates the city’s liberation from a devastating plague in 1577, and features fireworks and a floating bridge of barges spanning the Grand Canal.
Toninello said residents are considering staging marches, hanging banners from bridges, and blocking canals to oppose Fertitta’s visit.
It’s not yet clear where a vessel the size of the Boardwalk would be able to moor, since some major waterways will be closed for the festival.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Rome for comment.
Last June, Bezos and his future wife Lauren Sánchez spent an estimated $50 million to stage a multi-day event for about 200 to 250 guests at historic sites across the floating city.
They were met with widespread protests, including a giant banner of the Amazon’s chief face that was captioned, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding then you can pay more tax.”
Besides Venetians’ frustration with their city being used as a staging ground for ostentatious displays of wealth, Toninello questioned whether it really made sense to celebrate Italy-U.S. relations, as Fertitta has claimed his trip aims to do.
On Friday, Trump infuriated Meloni by telling an Italian journalist she had “begged” him for a photo at the G7 summit in Paris.
The Italian premier responded in a video statement that Trump’s claims were completely made-up, and called on him to stop his “constant” and “senseless” attacks against his allies.
“Italy and I never beg,” she said, prompting Trump to double down on his G7 photo story and complain about Italy’s refusal to support the president’s deeply unpopular war in Iran.
On Thursday, Fertitta insisted to reporters aboard his yacht that Italy and the U.S. have a historic relationship that will continue, and that the dust-up between Trump and Meloni was just a “small hitch.”
