Donald Trump widened Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump tension by saying Giorgia Meloni had “begged” him for a photo at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains. The remark landed after a June conversation on a sofa that Italian officials described as a “clarifying discussion,” a brief pause in a dispute that had already moved from public attacks to personal insults.
Meloni told reporters at the summit that the atmosphere was “very positive” and that there was “no friction.” Days later, Trump told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni “wanted a picture with me so badly” and added, “I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”
From January 2025 to June
The split is unusual because Trump and Meloni had been among the closest political pairings in European politics. Meloni was the only European leader with a front-row seat at Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, and in last April she went to the White House for a meeting aimed at easing tensions over US tariffs on European goods.
That earlier access gave the relationship a different weight from a routine exchange between Italy and the US. For Meloni, who has spent years trying to rebrand herself as a moderate, credible face of the European right, the public collapse of warmth with Trump is now part of the story, not just a diplomatic backdrop.
Sigonella and the first fracture
The first real fracture came in late March, when Italy’s defence ministry refused to let US military aircraft bound for the Middle East use the Nato airbase at Sigonella in Sicily without parliamentary approval. The decision was rooted in Italy’s constitution and public opposition to the war, and it put a hard limit on how far Meloni could move to accommodate Washington.
In April, Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV on Truth Social over the pontiff’s criticism of the war and called him “weak on crime.” Meloni called that attack “unacceptable,” a public break that showed the dispute had moved beyond tariffs and into language that directly challenged her standing at home and abroad.
Trump, La7, and the sofa photo
Trump later told Corriere della Sera, “I’m shocked at her,” and said, “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.” He also said, “She is unacceptable... she is not the same person, Italy is not the same country.” Those remarks followed the earlier point of friction and hardened the dispute before the June G7 meeting in Évian-les-Bains in France.
At that summit, Trump and Meloni were photographed deep in conversation on a sofa. Italian officials described the exchange as a “clarifying discussion,” while Meloni told reporters that the atmosphere was “very positive” and that there was “no friction.”
Trump’s later La7 comments cut across that account. By saying Meloni had “begged” him for a photo, he turned a private diplomatic moment into a public put-down, and the damage now sits in the open rather than behind the scenes.
What happens next depends on whether Italy and the US choose another direct conversation or let the clash harden into a wider political marker. For now, the record is clear: the June sofa photograph briefly suggested a reset, and Trump’s later remarks made that reset look thinner than Meloni had told reporters.
