{"id":714031,"date":"2026-06-19T18:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714031\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T18:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:21:11","slug":"italy-pm-meloni-stunned-by-trumps-claims-she-begged-him-for-a-photo-giorgia-meloni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714031\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy PM Meloni \u2018stunned\u2019 by Trump\u2019s claims she begged him for a photo | Giorgia Meloni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy\u2019s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni<\/a>, has said Donald Trump \u201ctotally invented\u201d a story about her after the US president claimed she begged him to take a photo with her during the G7 summit.<\/p>\n

The two former allies had appeared to be getting their relationship back on track by having several one-to-ones on the sidelines at the gathering in \u00c9vian after falling out in April over the US-Israeli war in Iran.<\/p>\n

But referring to Meloni during a brief interview with Italy\u2019s La7 \u2013 a dubbed version of which was broadcast by the Italian TV network on Friday \u2013 Trump said: \u201cShe\u2019s probably happy I talked to her. I didn\u2019t have to talk to her. She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn\u2019t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks provoked fury in Italy and words of solidarity for Meloni from across the political spectrum, with Italy\u2019s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, saying he had cancelled a trip to the US next week.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni talk after posing for a group photo at the G7 summit. Photograph: Christian Hartmann\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Responding in a video post on Instagram with the caption \u201cItaly and I never beg\u201d, Meloni said \u201csome things deserve an immediate response\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s declarations are totally invented,\u201d she added. \u201cFrankly, I am stunned. I don\u2019t know why the US president behaves this way towards his allies. It\u2019s not the first time it\u2019s happened, I can only say it\u2019s unfortunate he doesn\u2019t show the same determination towards the west\u2019s enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump and Meloni fell out in April for two reasons: Italy\u2019s refusal to support the US-Israeli war in Iran<\/a> and then Trump\u2019s extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo in reaction to the pontiff\u2019s condemnation of the war. Until then, Meloni had long nurtured good relations with Trump, mostly rooted in shared nationalistic rhetoric, and was the only European leader invited to attend his inauguration as US president.<\/p>\n

Giuseppe Conte, the former prime minister and leader of opposition party the Five Star Movement, said Italy \u201cdoesn\u2019t deserve to find itself so blatantly humiliated\u201d.<\/p>\n

Announcing the cancellation of his planned trip to the US on X, Tajani said: \u201cThe serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia offend the whole of Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giovanbattista Fazzolari, undersecretary to the prime minister\u2019s office, said in a statement: \u201cIt is unclear whether out \u200bof intent or ineptitude [Trump] is wrecking the historic \u200brelations between the United States and Europe<\/a>. With his \u200binappropriate outbursts, he has managed \u200cno easy feat, to make \u200bthe US unpopular across the \u200bentire European continent, damaging not only Europe but above all the US.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has said Donald Trump \u201ctotally invented\u201d a story about her after the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-714031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}