{"id":214493,"date":"2026-06-20T18:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-and-italys-giorgia-meloni-escalate-war-of-words-over-g7-photo-claims-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T18:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:36:02","slug":"trump-and-italys-giorgia-meloni-escalate-war-of-words-over-g7-photo-claims-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-and-italys-giorgia-meloni-escalate-war-of-words-over-g7-photo-claims-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni escalate war of words over G7 photo claims – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ROME \u2014 This time, Giorgia Meloni was quick to fire back: \u201cI and Italy never beg.\u201d
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Clearly irked at President Donald Trump\u2019s <\/a>suggestion that she had <\/a>had \u201cbegged\u201d him for a photo at the Group of Seven summit<\/a> earlier this week, the Italian prime minister said this was \u201ctotally fabricated.\u201d
The dispute erupted after Trump told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni had pleaded with him for a photo at the meeting of leading industrialized nations in the French resort of Evian-les-Bains earlier this week.
\u201cShe begged me to take a photo with her. She wanted a photo with me so badly \u2014 I could have skipped it, but I felt sorry for her,\u201d Trump said in the brief interview, which was posted by the channel to its website Friday.
In her response, the Italian leader said she was \u201cstunned\u201d by Trump\u2019s comments, before taking aim at Trump\u2019s broader approach to international relations, suggesting he treats longtime Western allies<\/a> with less respect than he shows their adversaries.
\u201cI don\u2019t know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies,\u201d Meloni said. \u201cIt\u2019s not, after all, the first time this has happened.\u201d
She appeared to be referring to an April interview Trump gave to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in which he criticized Meloni\u2019s refusal to back the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Meloni didn\u2019t respond publicly at the time.
Their most recent clash, by contrast, quickly escalated. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani led a stream of Italian politicians condemning Trump\u2019s remarks, branding them \u201coffensive\u201d to the entirety of Italy and announcing that he was canceling a planned trip to the U.S. next week.
There was no sign of the feud cooling on Saturday, as Trump posted on Truth Social that Meloni had asked \u201cover and over\u201d for a picture with him in France.
\u201cShe is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cNow, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her \u2018numbers up.\u2019 No thanks!!!\u201d
In an English-language post on Instagram addressed to Trump directly, Meloni fired back: \u201cThese constant unprovoked attacks are senseless. As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you.\u201d
\u201cMy popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours,\u201d she added.
Video footage from the G7 appeared to show Meloni and Trump engaged in an extended one-on-one conversation while seated together on a small sofa.
But Trump portrayed the interaction as something he had granted rather than sought out.
\u201cShe\u2019s probably happy I talked to her. I didn\u2019t have to talk to her,\u201d Trump told La7 after raising the subject of the Italian prime minister himself during the interview.
Only a dubbed version of the interview was made public, and the original audio was not released by the Italian broadcaster.
Another video from the summit showed Meloni speaking and gesturing animatedly as Trump listened with little visible reaction.
Later during a phone call with NBC News, Trump doubled down on his claim that Meloni has begged for a picture together.
\u201cThat\u2019s true,\u201d he said. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t there for us.\u201d
\u201cShe was a big fan but I don\u2019t want her as a fan because she was not there \u2014 along with the NATO group \u2014 having to do with the strait,\u201d he added, referring to the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that Iran blocked after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks in late February.
Trump has complained that NATO allies did not offer help to American forces after the war began.
Once regarded as one of Trump\u2019s closest political allies<\/a> in Europe, Meloni attended his inauguration in January 2025. She was the only European leader present at the ceremony.
Trump also has previously spoken warmly of Meloni, whose right-wing populist Brothers of Italy party was part of a broader rise in nationalist and populist movements across Europe.
When the two met at his Mar-a-Lago resort in January last year, Trump called her a \u201cfantastic woman\u201d who was \u201creally taking Europe by storm.\u201d
The latest war of words marks a dramatic downturn in relations between the two right-wing leaders.
Earlier this year, Meloni criticized Trump after he lashed out at Pope Leo XIV<\/a> over the pontiff\u2019s condemnation of the Iran war.
Trump responded by accusing the Italian prime minister of lacking courage, exposing divisions that had strained what was once viewed as a strong political partnership.
Claudio Lavanga reported from Rome and Elmira Aliieva from London.<\/em>
Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.
Elmira Aliieva is an NBC News intern based in London.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeROME \u2014 This time, Giorgia Meloni was quick to fire back: \u201cI and Italy never beg.\u201dSubscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Clearly irked at President Donald Trump\u2019s suggestion that she had had \u201cbegged\u201d him for a photo at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}