{"id":3209,"date":"2026-04-15T19:04:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3209"},"modified":"2026-04-15T19:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:04:37","slug":"trump-turns-on-meloni-says-he-is-shocked-by-italian-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3209","title":{"rendered":"Trump turns on Meloni; says he is &#8216;shocked&#8217; by Italian leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br>Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lacks courage and has let Washington down, U.S. President Donald Trump told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday, delivering a \u200cblunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meloni had been a vociferous supporter of Trump, but she distanced herself from him after he went to war with Iran in February, and on Monday she openly criticized \u200chim for lashing out at Pope Leo, saying his verbal assault \u2060was &#8220;unacceptable&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fireboy DML - iseoluwa (Official Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jhR7EtqJ4LE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump responded in an interview with Corriere della Sera, saying Meloni was &#8220;very \u2060different from what I \u2060thought&#8221; and denouncing her for refusing to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz, which has \u200cbeen blocked by Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m shocked by her. I thought she had courage. I was wrong,&#8221; he was \u2060quoted as saying in the Italian-language article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The White \u2060House declined to comment on the reported quotes. Meloni&#8217;s office also declined to comment, but politicians of all stripes rallied to her defence, including Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, head of the coalition Forza Italia party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are, and will remain, sincere supporters of Western \u2060unity and steadfast allies of the United States, but that unity is built on loyalty, \u2060respect and mutual frankness,&#8221; he said, applauding Meloni \u200cfor denouncing Trump&#8217;s attack on the pope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;On Pope Leo XIV, she said exactly what all of us Italian citizens think,&#8221; he added in a statement on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump&#8217;s criticism marked a dramatic change in tone toward Meloni, the only European leader to attend \u200chis inauguration in 2025 and whom he had hailed as &#8220;a great leader&#8221; just one month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Tuesday he accused her of failing to back U.S. efforts to tackle Iran&#8217;s nuclear program and guarantee energy flows through the Gulf, saying she wanted America &#8220;to do the job for her.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked about her condemnation of his comments on Pope Leo, he said: &#8220;She is the one who is unacceptable, because she does not care whether Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow Italy up \u200bin two minutes if it had the chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reprimand capped a tumultuous month for Meloni, who lost a crunch referendum on judicial reform in March and then saw her \u200cpolitical ally Viktor Orban ousted from power in Hungary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S.-Israeli war in the Gulf threatens to upend the economy with surging energy costs and is hugely unpopular with Italians, putting Meloni on a collision course with Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeking to distance \u200cherself from the conflict, she refused to let U.S. fighters use an air base in Sicily \u2060for combat operations in Iran last \u2060month and on Tuesday, she suspended a military \u200bcooperation pact with Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump said the surge in energy prices should have encouraged Italy, \u2060which is heavily dependent on \u200coil and gas imports, to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;They pay \u200bthe highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz&#8230; They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open,&#8221; Trump said. <a href=\"https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/world\/trump-turns-on-meloni-says-he-is-'shocked'-by-italian-leader1\">(JapanToday)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lacks courage and has let Washington down, U.S. President Donald Trump told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday, delivering a \u200cblunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies. Meloni had been a vociferous supporter of Trump, but she distanced herself from him after he went to war with Iran [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[55,3350,433,52,131,2210,3200,57],"class_list":["post-3209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign","tag-donald-trump","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-italy","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trump turns on Meloni; says he is &#039;shocked&#039; by Italian leader - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lacks courage and has let Washington down, U.S. President Donald Trump told an Italian ne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3209\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump turns on Meloni; 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