ROME — The Italian government closed ranks on Friday to slam U.S. President Donald Trump over his claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had \u201cbegged\u201d for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested America\u2019s longtime European ally had had enough of Trump\u2019s boasting and criticism.<\/p>\n
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump\u2019s claims \u201cserious and offensive\u201d toward Meloni and all of Italy. The Foreign Ministry later announced that the business and scientific forum Tajani was to attend in Miami had also been called off.<\/p>\n
Meloni for her part posted a video calling Trump\u2019s claims \u201ccompletely fabricated” and expressing astonishment that he would invent such things about an ally.<\/p>\n
\u201cItaly and I do not beg,\u201d she said pointedly.<\/p>\n
Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday on the La7 network. The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting during the just-concluded G7 meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several moments, including alone on a small sofa.<\/p>\n
According to La7, Trump said Meloni had \u201cbegged\u201d him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn\u2019t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster put a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.<\/p>\n
Meloni is astonished and defiant<\/p>\n
Trump’s posturing underscored how his alliance with Meloni – long seen as one of his closest friends in Europe – has frayed over his war in Iran, his tariffs against Europe and his complaints when anyone disagrees with him.<\/p>\n
He turned on Meloni in April after she refused to support his war in Iran and stood up for Pope Leo XIV when Trump lashed out at the pontiff.<\/p>\n
But Meloni’s strong response on Friday suggested she no longer fears Trump’s verbal attacks \u2014 attacks that could actually play in her favor in a country where public opinion of the American president has chilled, said Lorenzo Castellani, a political scientist at Rome’s Luiss Guido Carli University.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways this was a favor to Giorgia Meloni, in the sense that she was accused until a few months ago of being a sort of Trump’s vassal in Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump\u2019s claims because \u201ccertain things deserve an immediate response.”<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn\u2019t the first time this has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni’s refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn’t respond publicly at the time. By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only say that it\u2019s a shame he doesn\u2019t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States \u2014 toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating,” Meloni said Friday. “But there\u2019s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House did not return an immediate request for comment on Meloni\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
Meloni had initially sought to build on longstanding strong U.S.-Italian ties when Trump began his second mandate, and had positioned herself as a \u201cbridge\u201d between Washington and the European Union. She was the lone EU head of state to attend his inauguration.<\/p>\n
But relations have frayed over the U.S. war in Iran, which Meloni has said was illegal, and Trump\u2019s position on Ukraine, which Italy strongly supports. Trump’s tariffs and strong U.S. support of Israel over its war in Gaza have been other points of contention.<\/p>\n
Italian officials close ranks around Meloni<\/p>\n
By Friday afternoon, solidarity for Meloni had poured in from across the government and political spectrum, and included a call from President Sergio Mattarella, Italy\u2019s respected head of state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever attacks @GiorgiaMeloni attacks all of us,\u201d posted Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio referenced the sacrifice of American troops in World War II in underlining the harm to U.S.-Italy relations caused by Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thousands of crosses marking the graves of American soldiers who died to free us from Nazi-Fascist dictatorship did not deserve such a painful blow to our fraternal ties,\u201d Nordio said on X.<\/p>\n
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said he didn’t believe Meloni would ever beg someone for a photo, \u201cnot even under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u2018fantastic\u2019 friendship frays<\/p>\n
Meloni and Trump had gotten off to a strong start, and the two leaders are ideologically aligned on many issues. As the head of a far-right party, Meloni backs curbing migration and promoting traditional values.<\/p>\n
Weeks before Trump\u2019s 2025 inauguration, Meloni met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat, a visit that she said went \u201cbeyond expectations.\u201d It was, she said at the time, \u201can opportunity to confirm a relationship that promises to be very solid.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
In the months after, Trump had praised her repeatedly, as \u201cfantastic,\u201d \u201cincredible,\u201d beautiful and a friend.<\/p>\n
But stark differences emerged over Ukraine. More recently, Meloni sharply warned against U.S. threats to take Greenland by force, saying she didn\u2019t believe Washington would go so far and that regardless Italy would never support such a move.<\/p>\n
Meloni also received support from an unlikely ally in Europe: Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro S\u00c3\u00a1nchez, who was on Friday asked about the back and forth on the sidelines of a European Council meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout Meloni, first and foremost, all my solidarity,” he told reporters. \u201cSecondly, I not only say this publicly in a response to your question, but also in private during the European Council meeting I offered her all my solidarity against this attack that is not political or personal \u2026 I really don\u00c2\u00b4t know how to qualify it.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME — The Italian government closed ranks on Friday to slam U.S. President Donald Trump over his claim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[308027,4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-714555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-308027","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714555","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=714555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}