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.
“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 pontiff’s repeated calls for an end to the war in the Middle East.
“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 far-right 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.”
