After slamming pope, Trump turns on Meloni
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni was supposed to be Europe’s bridge to US President Donald Trump. It may be burning.
After chastising Pope Leo XIV, Trump turned his ire on Meloni, long one of his closest European allies, for calling his papal broadside “unacceptable” and not backing the US-Israel war on Iran.
“I thought she had courage,’’ Trump said in an interview with leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera. “I was wrong.”
Meloni has not directly responded to Trump’s attacks. But they may be to her advantage as she recovers from a decisive referendum defeat last month and as she seeks to dull the impact of the deeply unpopular Iran war, including higher energy prices.
“I actually think this is a godsend for her,’’ said Nathalie Tocci, a professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS Europe and the director of the International Affairs Institute. “Trump has become completely toxic across Europe, across much of the world, including Italy.”
Frayed bond
Trump doubled down on Wednesday, saying their bond had frayed. “She’s been negative,” Trump told Fox News. “Anybody that turned us down to helping with this Iran situation, we do not have the same relationship.”
The only European Union leader invited to Trump’s second inauguration, Meloni was expected to leverage her strong ties with him once he returned to office 15 months ago. The two had a perceived natural alliance, with nationalistic tendencies and similarly hard-line stances on immigration.
But Italy was not spared the pain of Trump’s tariffs, and some may argue she has gotten little out of the relationship. When asked if they had spoken this month, Trump told Corriere, “No, not in a long time.’’
After an uncomfortable appearance in the Oval Office a year ago when she avoided directly confronting Trump on tariffs, the distance grew over the Iran war. Meloni has stated Italy will not participate in the war and the country last month refused US bombers the authorization to land at a pivotal air base in Sicily.
Meloni’s statement this week calling Trump’s attack on the Pope “unacceptable” was the most direct criticism of the president yet.
“It’s been building up over time, not so much because she is moving away from him but because he has become increasingly unhinged,” Tocci said.
Referendum loss
Meloni has sought to shore up support after the referendum loss, which became a de facto confidence test of her leadership. She made a two-day whirlwind solo tour of three Gulf states to shore up Italy’s gas and oil supply from the region during a growing energy crisis but returned home without any formal deals.
On Tuesday, she announced Italy would not automatically renew a defense agreement with Israel, after warning shots hit an Italian convoy that is part of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, a move that analysts say is driven more by domestic politics than a strategic shift.
