THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Trump said the Italian leader had “begged” him to take a photo together at the Group of 7 summit in France. The remarks come as their once-friendly relationship has frayed.
It looks as if the Italian prime minister’s teetering relationship with President Trump may have just fallen off a cliff.
For weeks, tensions have been rising. Mr. Trump has grown publicly frustrated with Giorgia Meloni, the right-leaning Italian prime minister, who had been one of his closest political friends on the international stage, for failing to support the war in Iran and for criticizing his broadside against Pope Leo XIV. On Friday, she seemed to have had enough.
After the president told an Italian journalist on Thursday that Ms. Meloni had “begged” him to take a photo together at the Group of 7 summit meeting in France this week, according to an English-language transcript shared by the TV reporter, Ms. Meloni called Mr. Trump’s statements “totally invented.”
“Italy and I never beg,” she proclaimed in a video posted on social media.
Ms. Meloni, who took office in 2022, had cast herself as the European leader who had the best relationship with the American president. Even as relations have deteriorated, she has tried to smooth over ruffled feathers. » | Motoko Rich and Josephine de La Bruyère | Reporting from Rome | Friday, June 19, 2026
