Meloni and Trump had loved each other so much but now they are insulting each other a lot.

He said he took a picture with her "because I felt sorry for her." She said that he "made everything up." Until yesterday, they were getting along well.

At the end of the G7 in Evian, Donald Trump called live on the program L’aria che tira on La7. Journalist Daniele Compatangelo, correspondent from the White House, asked him a question about Ukraine. Trump responded with three words: “I’m not involved” and immediately changed the subject: “How is your Prime Minister?”. And then just like that, all of a sudden, out of nowhere: Giorgia Meloni is “probably happy that I spoke to her, I wasn’t obliged to talk to her. She begged me to take a photo with her, she wanted it so much. I could have not done it, but in the end, I felt sorry for her.”

He said this in a phone call with an Italian journalist, live, on his own initiative, on an Italian television. It is not a private outburst that accidentally or maliciously ended up in the media, it is not an anonymous source, it is not a detractor of the President gossiping. It is Trump describing the behavior of the Italian Prime Minister to an Italian television, in terms that in any other diplomatic context would be considered an incident, a real offense. He then added that Europeans have gotten everything wrong about energy and immigration, that wind turbines are a failure, and that “they probably won’t be able to solve” these problems. Then he said he had to go.

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Un post condiviso da Giorgia Meloni (@giorgiameloni)

Meloni’s response came almost immediately, with a video posted on her social channels. “Some things deserve an immediate response: Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly astonished.” It is the harshest tone Meloni has used publicly towards Trump since becoming Prime Minister. She then added: “I don’t know why the President of the United States behaves this way with his allies. After all, this is not the first time it has happened.” The closing statement that will circulate the most is: “I can only say that it is a pity that he does not have the same determination with the enemies of the West, with leaderships with which he instead shows himself to be much more accommodating. One thing he must remember: I and Italy never beg.”In solidarity with the Prime Minister, President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani immediately expressed their support, with Tajani canceling an upcoming diplomatic trip to the United States.

Meloni has built part of her international credibility on being – according to her and her government allies – the European interlocutor closest to Trump, perhaps the only one capable of speaking to him, influencing him, being present at moments when everyone else was ignored. Trump dismantled this narrative, describing the Prime Minister as a woman who begs him for a photo, a fan. Whether it is true or not is almost irrelevant; the image has been projected, and Meloni had to choose whether to take the hit in silence or respond publicly. She responded, and with words that leave no room for interpretation.

The problem is that the response, however clear, does not resolve the underlying issue: if the privileged channel with Washington produces this, what is the value of that channel? The phrase about who is “much more accommodating” with the enemies of the West is a real and potentially effective argument, but it comes from a leader who until yesterday had also decided to be “much more accommodating” with a President whom many have long considered an enemy not only of the West but of the entire world. .