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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched a stinging criticism of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of his main European allies, over her unwillingness to join the Iran war.
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“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” he said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The interview was published the day after Meloni condemned as “unacceptable” Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV, after the supreme pontiff’s repeated calls for an end to the US intervention in Iran.
“She’s unacceptable because she doesn’t mind that Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if they had the chance,” Trump said in English.
Meloni, Italy’s conservative leader since October 2022, has been one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe and often seeks to act as a mediator between diverging US and European views.
But the president said they had not spoken this month, “not in a long time,” saying: “She doesn’t help us with NATO.”
“She doesn’t want to help get rid of a nuclear-weaponed Iran. Very sad… She’s much different than I thought.”
He described the NATO military alliance as a “paper tiger”, and criticised Europe in general for not being “willing to fight for the Hormuz strait, which is where they get their energy”.
Trump said that Meloni was “not the same person. Italy is not the same country. Immigration is killing Italy and all of Europe.”
Meloni’s allies and political opponents were swift to offer their support.
“We are and remain staunch supporters of Western unity and steadfast allies of the United States, but this unity is built on mutual loyalty, respect, and honesty,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X.
He said that until now, Trump considered Meloni a courageous person, and “he was not mistaken, but she is a woman who never shies away from saying what she thinks”.
“And on Pope Leo XIV she said exactly what all of us Italians think. The prime minister and the government defend and will always defend only and solely the interests of Italy,” he said.
Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, condemned Trump’s “serious lack of respect”.
“Our constitution is clear — Italy repudiates war,” she added in parliament.
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