U.S. President Donald Trump took a sharply personal tone toward Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in an exclusive phone interview with Italian broadcaster La7, claiming she had "begged" him for a photograph during their recent meeting at the G7 summit.
Speaking with La7 White House correspondent Daniele Compatangelo on the program L'Aria che Tira, Trump was asked about his face-to-face encounter with Meloni at the summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. According to La7's report, Trump said Meloni had pleaded with him to take a picture together, adding that he agreed only because he felt sorry for her.
The remark stood in contrast to footage from the summit itself, which showed the two leaders sitting side by side on a sofa, deep in conversation — an image many observers had read as a sign that the once-close allies were mending a relationship strained earlier this year over disagreements on the Iran conflict and other issues.
During the same call, Trump touched on broader foreign policy matters. He said he wants "only peace" regarding the war in Ukraine, while distancing himself from the details of ongoing negotiations. He also leveled criticism at Europe more generally, accusing the continent of serious missteps in its energy and immigration policies.
The interview was notable for its format: La7 aired only a dubbed Italian translation of Trump's remarks, without releasing his original English audio, a detail that has drawn some attention online as observers note the secondhand nature of the quotes attributed to him.
Trump and Meloni were previously considered among the closer pairings in Trump's dealings with European leaders, with Meloni attending his January 2025 inauguration and the two forging what was widely described as a working rapport few other European leaders managed to establish. That relationship had shown signs of strain earlier this year, including a public disagreement after Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV's calls for peace, which Meloni publicly rebuked as "unacceptable."
Friday's comments mark the latest flashpoint in that uneven relationship, arriving just as the two governments appeared, at least publicly, to be on more stable footing following their G7 encounter.
As of this report, Prime Minister Meloni's office had not issued any public response to Trump's remarks. The National Digital Dispatch will continue to follow developments in this story.
