ROME — This time, Giorgia Meloni was quick to fire back: “I and Italy never beg.”
Clearly irked at President Donald Trump’s suggestion that she had had “begged” him for a photo at the Group of Seven summit earlier this week, the Italian prime minister said this was “totally fabricated.”
The dispute erupted after Trump told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni had pleaded with him for a photo at the meeting of leading industrialized nations in the French resort of Evian-les-Bains earlier this week.
“She begged me to take a photo with her. She wanted a photo with me so badly — I could have skipped it, but I felt sorry for her,” Trump said in the brief interview, which was posted by the channel to its website Friday.
In her response, the Italian leader said she was “stunned” by Trump’s comments, before taking aim at Trump’s broader approach to international relations, suggesting he treats longtime Western allies with less respect than he shows their adversaries.
“I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies,” Meloni said. “It’s not, after all, the first time this has happened.”
She appeared to be referring to an April interview Trump gave to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in which he criticized Meloni’s refusal to back the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Meloni didn’t respond publicly at the time.
Their most recent clash, by contrast, quickly escalated. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani led a stream of Italian politicians condemning Trump’s remarks, branding them “offensive” to the entirety of Italy and announcing that he was canceling a planned trip to the U.S. next week.
There was no sign of the feud cooling on Saturday, as Trump posted on Truth Social that Meloni had asked “over and over” for a picture with him in France.
“She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity,” he said, adding: “Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her ‘numbers up.’ No thanks!!!”
In an English-language post on Instagram addressed to Trump directly, Meloni fired back: “These constant unprovoked attacks are senseless. As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you.”
“My popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours,” she added.
Video footage from the G7 appeared to show Meloni and Trump engaged in an extended one-on-one conversation while seated together on a small sofa.
But Trump portrayed the interaction as something he had granted rather than sought out.
“She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her,” Trump told La7 after raising the subject of the Italian prime minister himself during the interview.
Only a dubbed version of the interview was made public, and the original audio was not released by the Italian broadcaster.
Another video from the summit showed Meloni speaking and gesturing animatedly as Trump listened with little visible reaction.
Later during a phone call with NBC News, Trump doubled down on his claim that Meloni has begged for a picture together.
“That’s true,” he said. “She wasn’t there for us.”
“She was a big fan but I don’t want her as a fan because she was not there — along with the NATO group — having to do with the strait,” he added, referring to the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that Iran blocked after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks in late February.
Trump has complained that NATO allies did not offer help to American forces after the war began.
Once regarded as one of Trump’s closest political allies in Europe, Meloni attended his inauguration in January 2025. She was the only European leader present at the ceremony.
Trump also has previously spoken warmly of Meloni, whose right-wing populist Brothers of Italy party was part of a broader rise in nationalist and populist movements across Europe.
When the two met at his Mar-a-Lago resort in January last year, Trump called her a “fantastic woman” who was “really taking Europe by storm.”
The latest war of words marks a dramatic downturn in relations between the two right-wing leaders.
Earlier this year, Meloni criticized Trump after he lashed out at Pope Leo XIV over the pontiff’s condemnation of the Iran war.
Trump responded by accusing the Italian prime minister of lacking courage, exposing divisions that had strained what was once viewed as a strong political partnership.
Claudio Lavanga reported from Rome and Elmira Aliieva from London.
