ROME\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Italian government closed ranks Friday to slam President Trump over his claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had \u201cbegged\u201d for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested the longtime U.S. ally had had enough of Trump\u2019s boasting.<\/p>\n
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly canceled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump\u2019s claims \u201cserious and offensive\u201d toward Meloni and all of Italy.<\/p>\n
Meloni for her part posted a video calling Trump\u2019s claims \u201ccompletely fabricated\u201d and expressing astonishment that he would invent such things about an ally. She concluded: \u201cItaly and I do not beg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday morning on the LA7 network. The LA7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting during the just-concluded G7 meeting in \u00c9vian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several moments, including alone on a small sofa.<\/p>\n
According to LA7, Trump said Meloni had \u201cbegged\u201d him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn\u2019t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, LA7 said. The broadcaster has a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.<\/p>\n
Meloni is astonished and defiant<\/p>\n
In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump\u2019s claims because \u201ccertain things deserve an immediate response.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn\u2019t the first time this has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni\u2019s refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn\u2019t respond publicly at the time.<\/p>\n
By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only say that it\u2019s a shame he doesn\u2019t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States \u2014 toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating,\u201d Meloni said Friday. \u201cBut there\u2019s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House did not return an immediate request for comment on Meloni\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
Meloni had initially sought to build on longstanding strong U.S.-Italian ties when Trump began his second mandate, and had positioned herself as a \u201cbridge\u201d between Washington and the European Union. She was the lone EU head of state to attend his inauguration.<\/p>\n
But relations have frayed over the U.S. war in Iran, which Meloni has said was illegal, and Trump\u2019s position on Ukraine, which Italy strongly supports. Trump\u2019s tariffs and strong U.S. support of Israel over its war in Gaza have been other points of contention.<\/p>\n
Italian officials close ranks around Meloni<\/p>\n
By Friday afternoon, solidarity with Meloni had poured in from across the government and political spectrum, including a call from President Sergio Mattarella, Italy\u2019s widely respected head of state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever attacks @GiorgiaMeloni attacks all of us,\u201d posted Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio referenced the sacrifice of American troops in World War II in underlining the harm to U.S.-Italy relations caused by Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thousands of crosses marking the graves of American soldiers who died to free us from Nazi-Fascist dictatorship did not deserve such a painful blow to our fraternal ties,\u201d Nordio said on X.<\/p>\n
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said he didn\u2019t believe Meloni would ever beg someone for a photo, \u201cnot even under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can, however, imagine how much it cost her to set aside what Trump had said weeks ago, to serve the interests of Italy, of Europe, and of the West,\u201d Crosetto posted on X. \u201cJokes of this kind do no good to anyone: neither to the USA, nor to Italy, nor to the alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tajani had been due to travel to the U.S. on Sunday to take part in an Italy-U.S. business forum in Miami during which he was to have meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a U.S. State Department announcement of the meeting.<\/p>\n
Winfield writes for The Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Italian government closed ranks Friday to slam President Trump over his claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17968,7118,12275,1155,5,17971,184,17921,17972,2244,1163,17969,17970,2196,341],"class_list":["post-26086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-claim","tag-comment","tag-friday","tag-iran","tag-italy","tag-la7-correspondent","tag-meloni","tag-photo","tag-rank","tag-state","tag-trump","tag-u-s-war","tag-u-s-trip","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}