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Meloni and Trump: A very public fall-out that is proving very hard to fix
Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Image caption, Relations between Italy's prime minister and President Trump have worsened considerably since 2025 By Davide Ghiglione In Rome Published 14 minutes ago There is an AI-generated meme doing the rounds on social media in Italy that shows Giorgia Meloni doing all the things you might expect from someone fresh out of a tough break-up. In one fake photo she has a new haircut; in others she is imagined booking herself on a singles' holiday, training for a marathon and creating a profile on a dating app. Of course none of the images are real, but the joke has landed because it captures the very public political fall-out between the Italian prime minister and US President Donald Trump. Their relationship has over the past few months gone from public attacks to personal insults and back again, cooling what used to be one of the most watched alliances in European politics. It was not that long ago that Meloni was being called the "Trump whisperer", and she was the only European leader with a front-row seat at his January 2025 inauguration. Image source, Reuters Last April, she was also the EU leader of choice to head to the White House for a meeting aimed at easing tensions over US tariffs on European goods. For someone who started out on the fringes of Italian politics, with her roots in Italy's post-fascist tradition, and who has spent years trying to rebrand herself as a moderate, credible face of the European right, that closeness to Trump was never just seen by observers as a useful diplomatic tie. It was proof, on the biggest stage available, that she belonged there. But Trump's unpredictability has proved difficult for Meloni to handle, denting her credibility both nationally and internationally. The first real fracture came in late March, when Italy's defence ministry refused to let US military aircraft bound for the Middle East use the Nato airbase at Sigonella in Sicily without parliamentary approval, a decision rooted in Italy's constitution and the public's deep opposition to the war. Weeks later the row deepened. Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV on Truth Social in April over the pontiff's criticism of the war, calling him "weak on crime". To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, What Trump and Pope Leo XIV said about each other last April Meloni, governing a deeply Catholic country, called the attack "unacceptable". Trump did not take it well. "I'm shocked at her," he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "I thought she had courage, but I was wrong." He added: "She is unacceptable... she is not the same person, Italy is not the same country." By June things seemed to be getting better. At the G7 summit in Ãvian-les-Bains in France, Trump and Meloni were photographed deep in conversation on a sofa, and Italian officials spoke of a "clarifying discussion". Meloni told reporters the atmosphere had been "very positive," with "no
