{"id":543915,"date":"2026-06-19T18:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/543915\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T18:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:21:23","slug":"giorgia-meloni-says-donald-trump-fabricated-story-that-she-begged-him-for-photograph-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/543915\/","title":{"rendered":"Giorgia Meloni says Donald Trump fabricated story that she begged him for photograph \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giorgia Meloni<\/a> has accused Donald Trump<\/a> of being too \u201caccommodating\u201d to the enemies of the west after he claimed the Italian <\/a>prime minister had \u201cbegged\u201d for photos with him, as the animosity between the two former allies deepens.<\/p>\n

In a social media video published on Friday, Meloni \u2014 once one of Trump\u2019s strongest allies in Europe \u2014 rejected the US president\u2019s account of their encounter at the recent G7<\/a> summit, saying she was \u201cfrankly astonished\u201d at a narrative she said was \u201ccompletely fabricated\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why the US president behaves this way towards his own allies,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the first time it\u2019s happened. It is unfortunate that he does not have the same determination with the enemies of the west and with the enemies of the United States, with whose leaders he appears much more accommodating.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s one thing he must remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg,\u201d Meloni concluded. <\/p>\n

Italian lawmakers from across the political spectrum have turned on Trump, laying bare the breakdown in relations \u2014 and the depth of ill feeling \u2014 between the once-stalwart allies.<\/p>\n

Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister, announced that he was cancelling a scheduled visit to the US <\/a>next week in protest at the presidential slight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend all of Italy,\u201d Tajani wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Defence minister Guido Crosetto, who was in Washington earlier this week, lamented that Trump\u2019s comments would do \u201cno good to anyone: neither to the US nor to Italy\u201d. Deputy premier Matteo Salvini said that \u201cwhoever attacks Giorgia Meloni attacks all of us\u201d.<\/p>\n

The leftwing opposition also criticised Trump.<\/p>\n

Giuseppe Conte, leader of the populist Five Star Movement, said: \u201cItaly does not deserve to be humiliated so blatantly.\u201d But he also took a swipe at Meloni, suggesting that she was paying the price for getting too close to Trump and his Maga movement.<\/p>\n

The drama erupted on Friday morning after a journalist for the Italian television station La7 had a brief phone interview with Trump about his encounter with Meloni during the G7 summit in France. <\/p>\n

Trump claimed that Meloni \u201cwanted to have a picture with me so badly\u201d and that he \u201cfelt sorry for her\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meloni has been one of Trump\u2019s staunchest political defenders in Europe, even trying to justify his threat to invade Greenland, and even the US-Israeli bombing of Iran.<\/p>\n

But relations deteriorated sharply last month after Meloni intervened in a spat between Trump and Pope Leo<\/a> over the war in Iran, calling the verbal attacks of the US president on the Catholic spiritual leader \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

After that, Trump tore into Meloni, complaining that her government had failed to back US efforts to destroy Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and that she herself \u201clacked courage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Meloni sought to repair the damage to reaffirm their relations, seeking out Trump during the G7 meeting. Afterwards, she claimed relations were back on an even keel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no recriminations,\u201d Meloni told journalists at the G7, adding that she and Trump both have \u201cfairly strong personalities\u201d but also both \u201cresolutely defend our national interests\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no need for us to sort things out when we disagree on something \u2014 after all, each of us obviously understands the other\u2019s point of view \u2014 so we jumped right back into discussing what needs to be done in the coming months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Meloni, who since Trump\u2019s return to the White House has sought to act as a bridge between Europe and the US administration, has come under increased pressure in recent weeks as far-right firebrand Roberto Vannacci\u2019s fledgling party builds support ahead of next year\u2019s elections, accusing her of betraying far-right ideals and forcing her to prove she has not gone soft in office.<\/p>\n

Vannacci on Friday defended Meloni: \u201cI do not agree with those who, in order to attack Giorgia Meloni or her government, end up dragging the Italian prime minister through the mud \u2014 and, along with her, the image of our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giorgia Meloni has accused Donald Trump of being too \u201caccommodating\u201d to the enemies of the west after he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,356,18,13,14,12391,6585,6,19,17,371,11,12,15,16,5,2515,7,8],"class_list":["post-543915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-g7","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-italy","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116778164746651944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}