Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni delivered a sharp public rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, rejecting his account of their encounter at this week’s G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France.
The clash traces back to an interview Trump gave Italian broadcaster La7, in which he claimed Meloni had pushed for a photo with him and that he’d only obliged because he felt sorry for her, adding that he hadn’t needed to talk to her at all that day.
Meloni wasn’t willing to let it stand. In a video posted to X, she called the story completely fabricated and said she was genuinely astonished that the American president would treat an ally this way, especially, she noted, since it wasn’t the first time.
She went further, suggesting Trump reserves his warmest treatment not for partners like Italy but for the West’s actual adversaries. She ended with a line that’s now making headlines across Europe: “Neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
The episode quickly escalated into a broader diplomatic spat. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced he was cancelling a planned weekend trip to Washington, calling Trump’s comments about Meloni offensive not just to her but to the country as a whole.
What makes the dispute notable is the footage itself, which is a video from the summit that shows Trump and Meloni in an easy, extended conversation on a sofa, seemingly cordial, a far cry from the dismissive framing Trump gave it afterwards.
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