{"id":7385,"date":"2026-06-20T16:35:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/trump-insists-italys-meloni-sought-photos-with-him-to-boost-popularity\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T16:35:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:35:24","slug":"trump-insists-italys-meloni-sought-photos-with-him-to-boost-popularity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/trump-insists-italys-meloni-sought-photos-with-him-to-boost-popularity\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump insists Italy\u2019s Meloni sought photos with him to boost popularity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>US president\u2019s comments escalate a row between the once-close leaders that has emerged during the conflict with Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on criticism of Italy\u2019s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, claiming she repeatedly sought photo opportunities with him at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/15\/trump-touts-iran-deal-and-ukraine-ambition-as-he-arrives-at-g7\">recent G7 summit<\/a> to bolster her domestic popularity.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s latest comments in a post on Truth Social on Saturday deepen a personal row between Trump and the right-wing Italian leader, who was long viewed as one of the US president\u2019s top allies in Europe.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/4\/23\/italy-officials-say-replacing-iran-at-world-cup-2026-would-be-shameful\">Italy officials slam \u2018shameful\u2019 idea of taking Iran\u2019s place at World Cup<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/8\/italy-us-ties-strained-as-pope-and-iran-war-dominate-talks\">Italy-US ties strained as pope and Iran war dominate talks<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/15\/why-has-italys-giorgia-meloni-suspended-a-defence-pact-with-israel\">Why has Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni suspended a defence pact with Israel?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Trump had initially told Italian media on Thursday that Meloni \u201cbegged\u201d him for a picture at the G7 summit in France, saying he agreed only because he \u201cfelt sorry for her\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Meloni responded that she was \u201cstunned\u201d by the \u201cmade-up\u201d claim.<\/p>\n<p>But Trump fired back in his Saturday post, saying the Italian prime minister had asked \u201cover and over\u201d for a photograph.<\/p>\n<p>He accused her of trying to repair relations with Washington for domestic political reasons after Italy failed to support US action against Iran.<\/p>\n<p>\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 Trump wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Meloni rejected Trump\u2019s latest remarks on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Trump, these constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless,\u201d Meloni said on social media platform Instagram. \u201cMy popularity depends on my ability to defend Italy\u2019s national interest, and that is exactly what I have always done,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>In his post, Trump also revived his long-running complaint that the US spends heavily to protect \u201cso-called\u201d NATO allies, saying Washington contributes hundreds of billions of dollars to defend Italy and others.<\/p>\n<p>The remarks were a sharp escalation of a dispute that had already triggered anger in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/19\/italys-top-diplomat-nixes-us-trip-after-meloni-says-trump-fabricated-story\">cancelled a planned visit<\/a> to the US over the row, saying on Friday that Trump\u2019s \u201cgrave and offensive\u201d words towards Meloni \u201coffend the whole of Italy\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"trump-shows-more-deference-to-adversaries\">Trump shows \u2018more deference to adversaries\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Meloni, who leads Italy\u2019s far-right Brothers of Italy party, has accused Trump of showing more deference to the West\u2019s adversaries than to its partners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies,\u201d she said in a video posted on X in response to Trump\u2019s original comments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is regrettable that he does not show the same determination against the enemies of the West and the United States \u2013 against leaderships with whom he actually proves to be much more accommodating,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<p>Meloni had spent months <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/4\/18\/trump-and-italys-meloni-express-optimism-on-eu-tariff-deal\">cultivating close ties with Trump<\/a> while trying to reassure European allies wary of his second term.<\/p>\n<p>She had said at the end of the G7 summit in Evian that the atmosphere had been \u201cvery positive\u201d and that there was \u201cno friction\u201d between Trump and other leaders.<\/p>\n<p>But relations between the two <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/15\/trump-turns-on-meloni-saying-she-lacks-courage-over-us-israel-war-on-iran\">had already deteriorated<\/a> during the conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Trump <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/8\/melonis-trump-trouble-why-italian-pm-is-distancing-herself-from-us-leader\">turned on Meloni in April<\/a> after she defended Pope Leo XIV from his criticism of the pontiff\u2019s antiwar views. \u201cI thought she had courage, but I was wrong,\u201d Trump told Italian media at the time, adding that it was \u201cvery said\u201d that Meloni \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to help get rid of a nuclear-weaponed Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US president\u2019s comments escalate a row between the once-close leaders that has emerged during the conflict with Iran. United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on criticism of Italy\u2019s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, claiming she repeatedly sought photo opportunities with him at the recent G7 summit to bolster her domestic popularity. Trump\u2019s latest comments &#8230; <a title=\"Trump insists Italy\u2019s Meloni sought photos with him to boost popularity\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/trump-insists-italys-meloni-sought-photos-with-him-to-boost-popularity\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump insists Italy\u2019s Meloni sought photos with him to boost popularity\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}