U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a work lunch as part of the G7 summit, in Evian, eastern France, on June 16, 2026.
EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has accused Donald Trump of fabricating claims that she “begged” him for a photograph at the G7 summit.
Donald Trump’s increasingly bitter feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni escalated dramatically on Friday, June 19th, after the U.S. president claimed she had “begged” him to pose for a photograph during the recent G7 summit, prompting an angry denial from Rome and the cancellation of a foreign ministerial visit to Washington.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Italian broadcaster La7, Trump unexpectedly turned the conversation to Meloni before recounting their meeting at the G7 summit in Évian.
She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her. 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.
Meloni swiftly rejected the remarks in a video posted on social media, describing them as “completely made up.”
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 also criticised Trump’s approach to America’s adversaries, saying, “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 concluded by saying: “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
The exchange triggered an unusually forceful response from the Italian government.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced he was cancelling his planned visit to the United States on June 21–22, writing on X, “The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend the whole of Italy.”
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the Lega party, the junior coalition partner of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI), also rallied behind the prime minister, declaring: “Whoever attacks Giorgia Meloni attacks all of us.”
Ignazio La Russa, president of the Italian Senate, accused Trump of seeking revenge: “Donald Trump’s words, clearly false, are an obvious attempt to take revenge on the Italian prime minister for not bowing to the wishes of the tycoon.”
Friday’s clash marks a sharp deterioration in relations between Washington and Rome only days after the two leaders appeared to have eased months of tensions during the G7 summit.
Video footage from the meeting showed Trump and Meloni engaged in a lengthy private conversation, fuelling speculation that diplomatic efforts had succeeded in repairing a relationship strained by deep disagreements over the war in Iran.
The dispute first erupted in March when Meloni ruled out Italian participation in the U.S.-backed war against Iran, insisting: “We are not at war, and we do not want to be at war.”
Relations worsened further in April after she condemned Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV as “unacceptable,” prompting the U.S. president to accuse her of lacking courage and to question Italy’s commitment to confronting Tehran.
Trump later suggested he could reduce the American military presence in Italy, citing Rome’s refusal to support Washington’s strategy in the Middle East.
The latest war of words raises fresh questions over the future of what was once one of Trump’s closest political partnerships in Europe.
As Rafael Pinto Borges wrote for europeanconservative.com back in April,
it is Trump’s missteps in handling Europe, from the Greenland crisis to this latest controversy, that are alienating him from a great many old friends … If Donald Trump wishes to prevent the further erosion of his stature—and, therefore, that of the U.S.—among European Catholics, he would be well advised to change course. If he doesn’t, the consequences will likely not just be cultural—they will be geopolitical, too.
Zoltán Kottász is a journalist for europeanconservative.com, based in Budapest. He worked for many years as a journalist and as the editor of the foreign desk at the Hungarian daily, Magyar Nemzet. He focuses primarily on European politics.
