Donald Trump escalated his feud with Giorgia Meloni over Italy and a photo claim tied to the G7 summit in France. Ms. Meloni answered by posting that his account was “totally invented” and that “Italy and I never beg.”
France and Meloni
The dispute sharpened after Mr. Trump told an Italian journalist that Ms. Meloni had “begged” him to take a photo together after the G7 summit in France. On Saturday morning, he repeated on his social media platform that Ms. Meloni “asked, over and over, for a picture with me” and was trying to “get her ‘numbers up.’”
Ms. Meloni responded on social media with a video saying she was “appalled” by what she called his “fabricated” claims. She added, “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves like this with his own allies.”
Pope Leo XIV and Meloni
The feud did not begin at the summit. In April, the relationship between Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni started to deteriorate after Mr. Trump picked a fight with Pope Leo XIV and Ms. Meloni defended the pontiff. Mr. Trump later said she was “very different from what I thought,” adding, “I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage. I was wrong.” He also said, “She is the one who is unacceptable.”
For months before that break, Mr. Trump praised Ms. Meloni and called her a “beautiful young woman” who took Europe “by storm.” Ms. Meloni had also been the only European leader to attend Mr. Trump’s second inauguration and had visited Mar-a-Lago before it, a sign of how close the two leaders were portrayed as being before the public split.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Trump kept going and again complained about Italy steering clear of his war in Iran. That pushed the clash beyond a photo dispute and into a broader argument over where Italy stands when the United States presses its allies for support.
The immediate question is whether Mr. Trump has any evidence for his claim that Ms. Meloni asked repeatedly for a photo at the G7 summit. Ms. Meloni has already answered in public, and the record now shows two leaders who once looked aligned exchanging insults instead of the warmth that had defined their earlier meetings.
