At first, it seemed like a feud out of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Speaking to an Italian television channel after last week’s G7 Summit, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni “begged” him for a photo. Meloni shot back on Instagram, saying: “there is one thing he needs to remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.” Trump then doubled down on Truth Social, and Meloni responded on Instagram, saying: “As for my popularity, being your friend has certainly not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you.”
But this fight was really more than over a photo. The two leaders tangled over U.S. bases in Italy, which have been controversial since the Iran war. Trump accused her of causing “a great logistical inconvenience” by barring the U.S. from using Italian air facilities for American military operations in Iran. But Meloni said the use of Italian bases “is governed by agreements that we have always respected, and that cannot be violated as long as I am prime minister.” More broadly, this fight shows how Trump’s popularity has tanked in Europe since the war, and even Meloni, who is ideologically close to him in the global far-right movement, has distanced herself.
I discussed the feud with Brussels-based journalist Dave Keating, who writes the Gulf Stream Blues newsletter. He wrote about the feud on his Substack. Watch the video above or listen to it as a podcast.
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