Trump-Meloni Feud Heats Up
TEHRAN (Defapress) - By repeating and intensifying his controversial claims about Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, US President Donald Trump ignited a full-scale war of words and showed how fragile political friendships are.
Trump claimed in a series of messages on social media that Meloni repeatedly and insistently asked him to take a photo with him during the recent G7 summit in France; a claim that was met with a sharp and uncomplimentary response from the Italian Prime Minister, revealing the deep rift between Washington and its European allies.
Trump had contemptuously claimed in an interview with Italy’s LA7 television network that Meloni had “begged” for the photo and that he had accepted out of compassion, but the media show was only the surface of a much deeper geopolitical crisis that had its roots in the war rooms.
Meloni’s response to the claims was a direct verbal shot to the heart of Washington. She posted a shocking video on X and a frank post on Facebook, calling Trump’s comments “totally fabricated” and, in a heavy jab at the US president’s foreign policy, saying it is shameful that Trump did not apply the same toughness and decisiveness to the West’s enemies and compromising leaders.
Declaring that “Italy and I never beg,” Meloni advised Trump to focus on his own declining popularity rather than meddling in other people’s affairs. This frank confrontation sparked a wave of nationalism in Italy, to the point that the country's domestic media stood completely behind its prime minister, and even a far-right newspaper in Rome welcomed the US president with the blunt headline "Trump is an idiot."
But why have Trump and Meloni, two conservatives and like-minded people who were once each other's closest allies in Western Europe, come to blows like this? The answer to this puzzle lies in Italy's refusal to join the US war call against Iran.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump openly revealed that he no longer accepts Meloni as an ally due to the lack of support from Italy and the NATO complex in the Strait crisis and the Iran war. In contrast, Meloni sees her popularity as the result of defending Italy's national interests; A defense that was concretely demonstrated by blocking US military access to Italian military bases earlier this year and by condemning Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV for his opposition to the war.
Western Europe has generally tried to distance itself from the military conflict, but Italy’s defiance has angered the White House the most.
This freefall in bilateral relations comes at a time when Meloni was the only high-ranking European official to attend Trump’s second term inauguration, and the two sides had previously been in complete agreement on tough immigration policies and the preservation of national sovereignty.
The scale of the crisis has now led to the cancellation of an official visit by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to the United States and the cancellation of his meeting with Marco Rubio, and has destroyed efforts to mend ties at the G7 summit. Trump has proven that in his doctrine, the line between friend and foe is only a military order or a commemorative photo away.
