‘Focused on own popularity’: Italian PM Giorgio Meloni hits back at US President Donald Trump’s ‘pointless’ attacks
Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni has hit back after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested she was trying to improve her domestic political standing by repairing ties with Washington, telling the U.S. leader to focus on her own popularity. She called his attack “unprovoked and senseless” and said her popularity depended on her “ability to defend Italy’s national interests”“President Trump, these ongoing and unprovoked attacks are senseless. As for my popularity, being your friend certainly does not help and does not depend on my relationship with you. My popularity depends on my ability to defend Italy’s national interests, which is what I have been doing,” she said.“That’s what I did with the U.S. military bases in Italy as well. The use of those bases is governed by agreements that we have always respected and cannot be violated as long as I am prime minister. Italy remains a sovereign country. In any case, my popularity has nothing to do with you. I advise you to focus on yours,” she said in response to Trump’s assertion that Italy would not let the United States use its runways. After Trump returned from the G7 summit, he repeatedly claimed that Meloni was “begging” to take a photo with him, a claim that the Italian prime minister denied.Trump reiterated the claim on Saturday, saying “Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni has asked over and over again to take a photo with me during the G7 meeting in France. She is not well received in Italy, probably because in denying Iran the ability to acquire or develop nuclear weapons, she is denying the United States of America, a country that truly loves and protects Italy (but so does NATO!)”“She won’t even let us use Italian airstrips or runways, which creates a huge logistical inconvenience, even though the United States contributes hundreds of billions of dollars a year to protect Italy and other ‘so-called’ NATO allies. Now, after the US defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to increase her ‘numbers’,” he added.Support for Meloni’s government, which comes to power in 2022, has recently recovered to around 35% after gradually declining in 2025, while her Brotherhood of Italy party continues to lead the polls with about 28%. By contrast, Trump, who is sworn in as US president in January 2025, saw his approval rating rise slightly by 1 percentage point to 36% in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, still close to the lowest level of his political career, although public concerns about the cost of living have eased.
