Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has canceled a planned trip to the United States next week after Donald Trump said Giorgia Meloni had begged him for a photo at the Group of Seven summit. Tajani called the remarks serious and offensive to all of Italy.
The dispute erupted after Trump’s interview with Italian broadcaster La7 was posted to its website Friday. In it, he said Meloni had wanted a photo with him so badly that he could have skipped it, but felt sorry for her. He also said she was probably happy he spoke to her and that he did not have to talk to her.
Meloni, who attended Trump’s January 2025 inauguration and was the only European leader present, rejected the claim at once. She said it was “totally fabricated” and added, “I and Italy never beg.” She also said she was stunned by Trump’s comments and asked, “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies.”
The exchange lands hard because Trump and Meloni have often been presented as political allies. He met her at Mar-a-Lago in January last year and described her then as a “fantastic woman” who was “really taking Europe by storm.” But the new remarks cut against that tone, and video from the G7 in Evian-les-Bains earlier this week showed the two seated together in an extended one-on-one conversation on a small sofa.
Only a dubbed version of the interview was made public, and the original audio was not released by La7, leaving the exact cadence of Trump’s remarks unavailable. Even so, the political effect was immediate. What had been a personal slight became a diplomatic problem, with Italy’s foreign minister scrapping a US trip next week in open protest. The unanswered question now is whether the damage stops there or begins to alter how Rome handles Trump from here.
