President Donald Trump went after one of his closest European allies on Tuesday, criticizing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for defending the pope and not supporting Trump’s efforts against Iran.
“Do Italians like the fact that your prime minister isn’t giving us any help to get oil?” Trump said in a phone interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday. “Do people like her? I can’t imagine. I’m shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”
Meloni on Monday had jumped into the fray between Trump and Pope Leo XIV. After the pope condemned Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization,” Trump called the pontiff “WEAK on crime” and claimed he wouldn’t have been chosen pope if Trump had not been the U.S. president.
“I find President Trump’s words toward the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni said in a statement Monday. “The pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he calls for peace and condemns every form of war.”
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Meloni is widely considered one of Trump’s closest European allies at a time the president has assailed Europe’s leaders and NATO; Meloni was the only European leader to attend the president’s inauguration in 2025.
Just last month, Trump sang Meloni’s praises, telling the same Italian newspaper that she is a “great leader.”
“She always tries to help, she is an excellent leader and she is a friend of mine,” Trump said then.
Now, Trump says “it’s her who’s unacceptable.”
“Because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if she had the chance,” the president said in Tuesday’s phone interview with the newspaper.
Trump also told the news outlet that he has not talked to Meloni “in a long time.”
“Because she doesn’t want to 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 said.
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