The Italian government has slammed US President Donald Trump’s claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit.
On Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy.
For her part, Meloni posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated”, which she concluded with: “Italy and I do not beg.”
Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday morning on the La7 network.
The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine. Still, Trump raised Meloni, and the conversation turned to their meeting, caught on video, during the just-concluded G7 meeting in France.
Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several points, including alone on a small sofa.
According to La7, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo-op.
Trump said he wasn’t obliged to do it, but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said.
The broadcaster has a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.
In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump’s claims because “certain things deserve an immediate response.”
“Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,” she said.
“I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”
It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April, in which he criticised Meloni’s refusal to back the US-Israel war in Iran.
