Italian PM Meloni fights back after Trump says she ‘begged’ for photo with him at G-7

ROME - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused her one-time close ally Donald Trump of fabricating a story about her on June 19, after the US President told an Italian TV channel that she had “begged” him to take a photo with her at a Group of Seven (G-7) summit.

Meloni said she was “astonished” by his comments, which were “completely made up”. She also chided him for acting with far greater deference to the enemies of the West than he does towards old, established allies.

Underscoring how much Trump’s comments have angered Meloni’s government, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced he was cancelling a planned visit to the US next week.

The latest exchange marks a sharp deterioration in ties, coming just days after signs at the G-7 summit that the two right-wing leaders had steadied a previously strained relationship following tensions in 2026 over the war in Iran.

Video from the event in France showed Meloni and Trump deep in conversation, but the US leader suggested he had merely indulged her by chatting with her.

“She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her,” Trump was quoted as saying by La7 TV channel in a brief interview, after he himself asked the journalist about Italy’s Prime Minister.

“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,” Trump said, according to La7’s translation.

The channel did not release the original audio, just a dubbed version.

Meloni hits back in sharply worded statement

Meloni responded: “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 said, adding: “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”

Announcing the cancellation of his planned US trip, Foreign Minister Tajani said on X: “The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend the whole of Italy.”

Top Meloni official says Trump is destroying historic ties

One of Meloni’s closest political allies, who usually shuns the media spotlight, struck out at Trump using a tone that would have been unthinkable beforehand.

“It is unclear whether out of intent or ineptitude (Trump) is wrecking the historic relations between the United States and Europe,” Giovanbattista Fazzolari, undersecretary to the prime minister’s office, said in a statement.

“With his inappropriate outbursts, he has managed no easy feat, to make the United States unpopular across the entire European continent, damaging not only Europe but above all the United States,” he added.

Meloni was once a vocal supporter of Trump and the only European leader to attend his inauguration in 2025.

However, she later criticised the US President for lashing out at Pope Leo over his condemnation of the Iran conflict, distancing herself from Trump after the war began. That prompted a blunt rebuke from the US leader, who accused her of lacking courage. REUTERS