Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has said Donald Trump “totally invented” a story about her after the US president claimed she begged him to take a photo with her during the G7 summit.
The two former allies had appeared to be getting their relationship back on track by having several one-to-ones on the sidelines at the gathering in Évian after falling out in April over the US-Israeli war in Iran.
But referring to Meloni during a brief interview with Italy’s La7 – a dubbed version of which was broadcast by the Italian TV network on Friday – Trump said: “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.”
The remarks provoked fury in Italy and words of solidarity for Meloni from across the political spectrum, with Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, saying he had cancelled a trip to the US next week.
Responding in a video post on Instagram with the caption “Italy and I never beg”, Meloni said “some things deserve an immediate response”.
“Donald Trump’s declarations are totally invented,” she added. “Frankly, I am stunned. I don’t know why the US president behaves this way towards his allies. It’s not the first time it’s happened, I can only say it’s unfortunate he doesn’t show the same determination towards the west’s enemies.”
Trump and Meloni fell out in April for two reasons: Italy’s refusal to support the US-Israeli war in Iran and then Trump’s extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo in reaction to the pontiff’s condemnation of the war. Until then, Meloni had long nurtured good relations with Trump, mostly rooted in shared nationalistic rhetoric, and was the only European leader invited to attend his inauguration as US president.
Giuseppe Conte, the former prime minister and leader of opposition party the Five Star Movement, said Italy “doesn’t deserve to find itself so blatantly humiliated”.
Announcing the cancellation of his planned trip to the US on X, Tajani said: “The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia offend the whole of Italy.”
Giovanbattista Fazzolari, undersecretary to the prime minister’s office, said in a statement: “It is unclear whether out of intent or ineptitude [Trump] is wrecking the historic relations between the United States and Europe. With his inappropriate outbursts, he has managed no easy feat, to make the US unpopular across the entire European continent, damaging not only Europe but above all the US.”