A casual remark on Italian television has erupted into a diplomatic flare-up between Rome and Washington, after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused US President Donald Trump of inventing a story about her conduct at a G7 summit.
Mr Trump told La7, an Italian TV channel, that Ms Meloni had “begged” him for a photograph during the gathering, a claim the prime minister said left her “astonished” and was “completely made up”.
Ms Meloni also used her response to level a broader critique at the US leader, saying he has shown more deference toward the enemies of the West than toward long-standing allies.
Highlighting the depth of anger in Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would cancel a scheduled trip to the United States next week.
The clash signals a sharp further slide in relations, coming only days after the G7 summit appeared to have steadied an uneasy partnership that had been strained earlier this year by disputes linked to the war on Iran.
‘I felt sorry for her’
Footage from the summit in France showed Ms Meloni and Mr Trump sitting close together on a small sofa, engaged in what appeared to be an extended conversation. Mr Trump, however, portrayed the interaction as an act of indulgence.
“She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her,” Mr Trump was quoted as saying in a short La7 interview, after he asked the journalist about Italy’s leader.
“She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her,” he said, according to La7’s translation.
Georgia Meloni said Donald Trump’s claims are ‘completely made up’
A European diplomatic source told Reuters that Ms Meloni had been among the most assertive voices at the G7, directly challenging Mr Trump on multiple points.
According to the source, she strongly backed Europe’s position and pushed back against Mr Trump’s repeated assertions that Western allies had abandoned him, stressing that they had offered support.
Ms Meloni issued a swift rebuttal to the president’s account.
“Donald Trump’s statements are completely made up. I am frankly astonished. I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies: it is not the first time, moreover,” she said in a video posted on social media.
“I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence,” she said.
“There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg,” she added.
In announcing he would scrap his planned visit, Mr Tajani wrote on X: “The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend the whole of Italy.”
Trump destroying historic ties, says Meloni official
Giovanbattista Fazzolari, the undersecretary to the prime minister’s office and one of Ms Meloni’s closest political allies, issued an unusually blunt statement against the US president, despite typically avoiding the spotlight.
“It is unclear whether out of intent or ineptitude (Trump) is wrecking the historic relations between the United States and Europe,” Mr Fazzolari said.
“With his inappropriate outbursts, he has managed no easy feat, to make the United States unpopular across the entire European continent, damaging not only Europe but above all the United States,” he added.
Ms Meloni had previously been an outspoken supporter of Mr Trump and was the only European leader to attend his inauguration in 2025.
But she criticised him earlier this year after he lashed out at Pope Leo for condemning the Iran conflict.
That episode drew a sharp response from the US president, who accused her of lacking courage.
