Italy nixes envoy’s U.S. visit as leader Meloni “stunned” by Trump comments: “Neither I nor Italy beg”

Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said Friday she was left “stunned” by President Trump reportedly telling an Italian network that she had “wanted a picture with me so badly” at the G7 summit earlier in the week, and that he only said yes because he “felt sorry for her.”

“She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her,” Italian TV channel La 7 quoted Mr. Trump as saying. The network only released an Italian voice-dubbed version of the conversation, so CBS News has not been able to verify his remarks.

“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,” he said, according to the channel.

In a video posted online, Meloni, a conservative politician previously seen as an ally to the president in Europe, responded by calling Mr. Trump’s depiction of the interaction “made up.”

“Neither I nor Italy ever beg,” she said. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies.”

“I can only say that it’s a pity he doesn’t show the same determination with enemies of the West, with enemies of the United States, with leaders with whom, instead, he is far more accommodating,” she added.

Mr. Trump’s remarks prompted the Italian government to cancel a planned visit to the U.S. by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani that had been scheduled for June 21 and 22.

“The serious and offensive words of President Trump … offend all of Italy,” Tajani wrote Friday in a post on X.

Meloni said Wednesday, after the G7 summit in France, that there had been a “very positive climate” and “no friction” between Mr. Trump and other leaders at the gathering. Video showed the pair deep in conversation during the event.

Meloni was the only European leader to come to Washington for Mr. Trump’s second inauguration, and her right-wing politics made her a more logical partner for the White House than other leaders of major European economies, some of whom have been sharply critical of Mr. Trump’s policies.

But the Iran war has put a strain on their relationship. 

In April, after Mr. Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV’s anti-war views, Meloni called his remarks  “unacceptable.”

“I’m shocked at her,” the president responded in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera. “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.”

Mr. Trump has since threatened to withdraw U.S. forces from Italy, saying the country “has not been of any help to us” in the Iran war — criticism he has leveled at all U.S. NATO allies.