Italy’s top diplomat has cancelled a planned trip to the United States after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni publicly rejected President Trump’s claim that she had “begged” him for a photograph at the G7 summit in France.
The dispute erupted after Trump told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni had pleaded with him for a photo opportunity during the gathering of leading industrialised nations in Évian-les-Bains earlier this week. Meloni, who has cultivated a close working relationship with Trump since his return to office and is regarded as one of his more reliable allies in Europe, took strong exception to the claim and pushed back publicly against the president’s version of events.
The diplomatic fallout came swiftly, with Italy’s senior diplomat scrapping their scheduled visit to the United States in the immediate aftermath of the row. The episode marks a rare public friction point in what has otherwise been a notably warm relationship between Meloni’s government and the Trump administration, and comes at a moment when transatlantic diplomacy is already under significant strain following weeks of intense negotiations over Iran, Ukraine and broader Middle East tensions at the same G7 summit.
