Meloni rejects Trump claim she begged for G7 photo

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused President Donald Trump of inventing a story that she “begged” him for a photo at this week’s G7 summit, triggering a diplomatic dispute that led Italy to cancel a planned visit to Washington by its foreign minister.

Meloni said Friday she was “frankly stunned” after Italy’s La7 TV channel reported that Trump said in a phone interview that she had “wanted a picture with me so badly” and that he agreed only because he “felt sorry for 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,” Trump said, according to La7. The channel released only an Italian voice-dubbed version of the conversation, and CBS News said it could not verify the remarks. The BBC said it had approached the White House for comment.

In a video posted online, Meloni rejected Trump’s account as “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.”

She added: “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.”

The dispute followed the G7 summit at Evian-les-Bains in eastern France, where Trump and Meloni were filmed speaking closely, including during what appeared to be an engrossed conversation on a small sofa. After the summit, Meloni told reporters there had been a “very positive climate,” “no friction” and “no recriminations” between Trump and other leaders.

The fallout was swift in Rome. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani canceled a trip to the United States scheduled for June 21 and 22. “The serious and offensive words of President Trump … offend all of Italy,” Tajani wrote Friday on X.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella phoned Meloni to offer his support, the BBC reported, while politicians across Italy’s political spectrum defended the prime minister. Filippo Sensi, a senator from the opposition Democratic Party, said no one had the right to speak to an Italian prime minister in such an arrogant tone. Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte said Italy did not deserve such humiliation and that seeking favor with Washington should not come at the expense of national dignity and interest.

Members of Meloni’s governing coalition also rallied behind her. Lucio Malan, Senate group leader for Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, said Trump’s words fit a broader pattern of offensive remarks toward European leaders and harmed Trump’s own image and authority. Matteo Salvini, leader of the League party, said: “Whoever attacks Giorgia, attacks all of us.”

Meloni, elected in 2022, had previously been viewed as one of Trump’s closest European partners. She was the only European leader to attend his second inauguration in January 2025, and her right-wing politics made her a more likely White House ally than several other leaders of major European economies.

But the relationship has frayed since Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. Meloni has opposed the U.S. war, and in April, after Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV’s anti-war views and accused him of being “weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy,” she called the remarks unacceptable. Trump responded in an interview with Corriere della Sera: “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.”

CBS News reported that Trump has also 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 also directed at other U.S. NATO allies.