It seems as if US President Donald Trump has pledged to get into a feud with every global leader. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has hit back at Trump for making up a story of her ‘begging’ for a photo at the recently held G7 Summit. The two leaders, who once claimed to be close allies, posed for warm photo-ops and exchanged effusive public praise, are now at loggerheads with each other.
Trump’s comments about Meloni begging for a photo have the Italian PM responding back with a sharp retort expressing her being “stunned” and unable to understand the US President’s behaviour with his own allies.
Meloni, once the only European head of government to attend Trump’s inauguration and among his most reliably friendly counterparts on the continent, is now openly accusing him of fabricating stories about her to the press. Italy’s foreign minister has pulled out of a planned US visit. And the rhetorical temperature between Washington and Rome, two governments, has dropped sharply.
What Did Trump Say?
US President Donald Trump was among the attendees at the recently concluded G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, held in mid-June 2026. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, along with a number of high-level international political dignitaries, was also present.
However, Trump, while speaking to Italian broadcaster La7, reportedly said, “She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her.”
As per the channel’s translation, he added, “She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”
As per reports, the channel only released a dubbed version of the interview and not one with the original English audio.
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What Did Meloni Respond With?
Meloni did not let this slide quietly. She responded directly, in a video message, calling the claim entirely false.
In a video statement posted on her official X/Twitter page, Meloni captioned it with “Io e l’Italia non imploriamo mai (Neither I nor Italy ever beg).”
According to reports, her words translated to state, “Donald Trump’s statements are completely made up. I am frankly astonished. I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies: it is not the first time, moreover.”
“I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence.”
She concluded her statement saying, “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
Io e l’Italia non imploriamo mai. pic.twitter.com/sTpKlqWB67
— Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) June 19, 2026
Underlining how seriously Rome was taking the slight, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced he was cancelling a planned visit to the United States in the aftermath of Trump’s remarks.
The thing is this comes in the aftermath of the US and Italy having just mended the diplomatic strain that the two countries have been engaged in since April this year. Trump and Meloni were filmed talking at several points during the summit, including sitting together on a small sofa.
The relations between the two nations had become tenuous after Trump responded to Pope Leo XIV’s, the head of the Catholic Church and the first American-born pope, vocal criticism of the Iran war.
Trump called out the Pope in his social media posts on Truth Social, calling him “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
He further ranted, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History. Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican. Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”
Meloni, a devout Catholic governing a country that is home to the Vatican, called his remarks about the Pope “unacceptable.”
Trump did not take this silently, when, during a phone interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, he was quoted as saying, “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.”
Meloni’s own framing of the broader dispute, then reportedly told reporters at the time, that, “Being allies does not mean there are no red lines, and it certainly does not mean being vassals or subjects.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Reuters, CBS News, AP News
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