Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has hit back at Donald Trump after the US president told an Italian TV channel that she begged him for a photo at the G7 Summit in France this week.
Donald Trump claimed to La7 that Giorgia Meloni “wanted a picture with me so badly” and that he only agreed out of pity.
“She begged me to take a picture with her,” he said. “I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”
Meloni was quick to respond, calling the claims “completely fabricated.”
Meloni calls Trump’s claims ‘fabricated‘
Writing on Instagram, the Italian PM said she was stunned by Trump’s remarks and made clear she wasn’t going to let them slide.
“Frankly, I am stunned. Italy and I never beg,” she wrote.
“Some things deserve an immediate response. I don’t know why the US president behaves this way towards his allies. It’s not the first time it’s happened. I can only say it’s unfortunate he doesn’t show the same determination towards the West’s enemies.”
The fallout didn’t stop there. Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani announced he was canceling a planned trip to the US on June 21 and 22 in response, writing on X that Trump’s words “offend all of Italy.”
Relationship between US and Italy keeps unraveling
The spat is the latest in a series of clashes between the two leaders despite both running right-wing governments. Relations between Washington and Rome took a significant hit earlier this year when Italy refused the US access to a strategic air base in Sicily following Trump’s bombing of Iran.
Trump said at the time he was “shocked” by Meloni’s refusal, adding: “She’s no longer the same person, and Italy will never be the same country again.”
There was also a row over Pope Leo, whom Trump called “terrible for foreign policy” and “weak on crime.” Meloni responded that it was “right and normal” for the Pope to call for peace, prompting Trump to tell Corriere Della Sera:
“It’s her who’s unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon.”
READ MORE:
- Dad defends taking daughters into women’s restroom after man calls police on him
- Millionaire heiress found dead after mentor is killed on family estate
