{"id":1223,"date":"2026-06-20T13:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2026-06-20T13:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:23:01","slug":"trump-deepens-the-dustup-with-italys-meloni-over-a-disputed-photo-from-the-g7-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=1223","title":{"rendered":"Trump deepens the dustup with Italy\u2019s Meloni over a disputed photo from the G7 summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump speaks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at a working lunch with leaders of G7 and the Middle East in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Evelyn Hockstein\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/small><\/p>\n

2026-06-20T13:06:12Z<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a><\/span> on Saturday lashed out at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni<\/a><\/span>, insisting that she asked \u201cover and over\u201d for a photo with him at the recent Group of Seven summit and criticizing what he said was Italy\u2019s lack of cooperation during the Iran war.<\/p>\n

The remarks deepen the spat that began this week<\/a><\/span> with the Republican president\u2019s interview with an Italian broadcaster, during which Trump claimed Meloni \u201cbegged\u201d for the photo during the G7 meeting in France. Meloni has called that \u201ccompletely fabricated.\u201d The dustup led Italy\u2019s foreign minister to cancel a planned trip to the United States as Meloni\u2019s government lined up in her defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cItalian Prime Minister Gigiorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France,\u201d Trump wrote on his social media platform while spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. He misspelled her first name in the initial post, which he later corrected.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cShe is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!).\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments were aired Friday on the La7 network. A correspondent had asked the president about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and made the claim about the photo. Trump said he was not obliged to take the picture with her but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster put a dubbed version of the conversation online, but not the original English audio.<\/p>\n

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