U.S. President Donald Trump publicly criticized Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, alleging she changed her stance toward Washington after what he described as a U.S. military victory over Iran. The comments appeared amid tensions following the G7 summit in France.
Trump said on social media that Meloni had sought a photo with him at the summit despite previously opposing the U.S. position on preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and, he claimed, denying U.S. forces access to Italian runways during the conflict. He also broadened his criticism to some NATO partners, saying several allies had not supported Washington’s approach to Iran.
Italy pushed back against several of Trump’s assertions. Rome rejected his account that Meloni repeatedly begged for a photograph, and the prime minister herself issued a video response calling the story untrue and saying she felt compelled to reply immediately. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, canceled a planned trip to the United States, calling Trump’s remarks “serious and offensive” to both Meloni and the country.
The episode follows an interview Trump gave on the La7 network in which he made similar claims. The exchanges have contributed to an increasingly public dispute between the U.S. president and Italy’s government, with both sides trading denials and rebuttals over the sequence of events and the motives behind Meloni’s actions.
Italian officials have sought to defend the country’s positions and relationships with allies, while Trump maintains his account that political calculation at home influenced Meloni’s behavior after the conflict. The disagreement underscores frictions between Washington and an important European partner as officials seek to manage both bilateral relations and broader NATO cohesion.