appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Agence France-Presse

Italy’s foreign minister on Friday cancelled a visit to the United States over reported comments by US President Donald Trump that appeared to mock Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“The grave and offensive words of President Trump … offend the whole of Italy,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who had been due to visit the US on Sunday and Monday, said on social media.
Meloni said she was “stunned” by Trump’s comments to Italian channel La7 in which, according to a transcript provided by the network, he said Meloni “wanted a picture with me so badly” at the G7 summit and he agreed only because he “felt sorry for her”.
He also suggested that Meloni might be “happy that I talked to her, I didn’t have to talk to her”.

Meloni called what Trump said “made up”, adding: “Neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
“I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies,” the far-right leader wrote on social media.
“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.”
One of Meloni’s closest political allies, who usually shuns ⁠the media spotlight, struck out at Trump using a tone that would have been unthinkable previously.
“It is unclear whether out of intent or ineptitude [Trump] is wrecking the historic relations between the United States and Europe,” Giovanbattista Fazzolari, undersecretary to the prime minister’s office, said in a statement.
“With ‌his inappropriate outbursts, he has managed ‌no easy feat, to make the United States unpopular across the entire European continent, damaging not only Europe but above all the United States.”

At the end of the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains on Wednesday, Meloni had spoken of a “very positive climate” and “no friction” between Trump and other world leaders present.
Meloni has positioned herself as a bridge between Europe and the Trump administration, but the relationship came under strain during the Iran war.
Trump turned on Meloni in April after she defended Pope Leo XIV from the US president’s harsh criticism of the pontiff’s anti-war views.
Meloni condemned Trump’s remarks as “unacceptable” – prompting the president to turn his fire on her.
“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” the US president said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera at the time.
He accused Meloni of failing to help the United States with Nato.
Trump has threatened to pull US troops from Italy, saying Rome “has not been of any help to us” in the Iran war.
Additional reporting by Reuters


Italian minister cancels US trip after Trump claims Meloni begged him for photo

How do people eat pizza in Naples? Any way they like, it seems

Japan failed to build its own airliner. Now it’s turning to Boeing

‘Climate change in trade’: battle lines drawn on Europe’s new China strategy

Italy

US President Donald Trump (left) speaks to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Wednesday. Photo: Italian Prime Ministry/Reuters

Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani talks to journalists ahead of a EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on January 29. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump arrives for a group photo at the G7 summit on Tuesday. Photo: AP

2 wars later, US-Iran nuclear diplomacy returns to square one

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian holds a memorandum of understanding document showing his signature and that of US president Donald Trump, in Tehran on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, second right, listens to head of Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Mohammad Eslami as he visits an exhibition of Iran’s nuclear achievements, in Tehran, Iran, on April 9, 2025. Photo: AP

An Iranian security official in protective clothing walks through part of the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the Iranian city of Isfahan in 2005. Photo: AP 

Vance calls Iran deal a ‘win-win’ as Trump lashes out at ‘fools’ who oppose it

US Vice-President J.D. Vance during a press briefing at the White House on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Vessels remain anchored in Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. Photo: ISNA/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

The new Iran agreement has strained relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters

US trade official takes aim at Beijing, faults Washington on industry

William Kimmitt, US under secretary of commerce for international trade, speaks at the Hudson Institute in Washington on Thursday. Photo: X/Hudson Institute

Trump shows no regret over Iran war deaths of 3 Indian sailors in Modi meeting

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump meet at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is set to travel to India next week for talks over an interim trade deal.  Photo: EPA

The US and Iran publish their official agreement. Here’s what’s in it

A woman walks past an anti-American mural on the wall of the former US Embassy, now a museum, in Tehran. Photo: AP

Vessels anchored at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

News

World

Europe

United States & Canada

Trump said the Italian prime minister ‘wanted a picture with me so badly’ at the G7 summit and he agreed because he ‘felt sorry for her’


Trump said the Italian prime minister ‘wanted a picture with me so badly’ at the G7 summit and he agreed because he ‘felt sorry for her’.


Italian minister cancels US trip after Trump claims Meloni begged him for photo

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Trump said the Italian prime minister ‘wanted a picture with me so badly’ at the G7 summit and he agreed because he ‘felt sorry for her’

Trump said the Italian prime minister ‘wanted a picture with me so badly’ at the G7 summit and he agreed because he ‘felt sorry for her’