A growing public rift between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took a sharp new turn over the weekend, as Trump doubled down on unsubstantiated claims that Meloni repeatedly begged for a photograph with him at this year’s Group of Seven summit, while also leveling fresh criticism over Italy’s refusal to support U.S. military actions related to the Iran conflict. The escalating exchange has already triggered diplomatic friction, leading Italy’s top diplomat to scrap a scheduled visit to Washington just days after the initial controversy emerged.
The confrontation first ignited earlier this week during an interview with Italian broadcaster La7, where Trump brought up Meloni unprompted after a question about the war in Ukraine and repeated the assertion that she had “begged” for a photo during the G7 gathering held in France. In response, Meloni flatly denied the accusation, calling it “completely fabricated,” and her entire administration rallied to her defense. The diplomatic fallout followed quickly, with Italy’s foreign minister announcing the cancellation of his planned U.S. trip.
On Saturday, from his weekend stay at the Camp David presidential retreat, Trump published a post on his own social media platform repeating the photo request claims. The original post contained a misspelling of Meloni’s first name, which was corrected after publication. He went on to attack Meloni’s political standing in Italy, claiming her popularity is flagging, and blamed that downturn on her refusal to back U.S. efforts to block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. “But so did NATO, for that matter!” he added in the post, extending his criticism to the wider transatlantic military alliance.
La7 confirmed that Trump raised the topic of Meloni without prompting during Friday’s interview, and published a dubbed version of the conversation to its digital platforms, though it has not released the original unedited English audio. The outlet also noted that Trump claimed he had no obligation to take the photograph, but agreed out of pity for the prime minister.
In his social media statement, Trump also reiterated a longstanding grievance that has shaped his approach to NATO: he accused Meloni of blocking U.S. access to Italian military airfields and runways during the recent Iran war, despite the United States bearing the largest share of defense spending across the alliance. This criticism comes ahead of the upcoming NATO summit scheduled to take place in Turkey next month, and follows Trump’s White House meeting this week with newly appointed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Italy has long served as a critical logistics hub for U.S. military operations across the Middle East and Mediterranean. Back in March, the Italian government moved to block American bombers bound for the Middle East from using a key Sicilian air base unless it received formal parliamentary approval, a decision that rankled U.S. officials. In his Saturday post, Trump claimed that in the wake of the recent U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal that ended the conflict, Meloni now “wants to be friends again” after refusing cooperation during the war.