A diplomatic firestorm between President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sparked global reactions Friday.
The prime minister acidly denied Trump's claims to an Italian TV network that she had "begged" him for a photo together during this week's G7 summit and that he agreed because he "felt sorry for her." Meloni claimed his comments were "completely made up."
"I am frankly astonished," Meloni said. "I don't know why the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies. It is not the first time, moreover."
"I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence," she added. "There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg."
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani responded to the row by scrapping his planned U.S. visit, writing on X that Trump's "serious and offensive words" toward Meloni "offend the whole of Italy."
The 80-year-old president drew global condemnation for his comments about Meloni, who had been one of his strongest allies in Europe.
"I believe her," said journalist John McGuirk.
"She's fabulous," gushed defense analyst Michael Shurkin.
"Italian fire and brimstone," marveled Bruno Tertrais, of the Foundation for Strategic Research.
"This dust up with Italy is a perfect example of many of Trump's missteps," observed The Dispatch's Mike Nelson. "He tells a blatant lie without any reason, just because he has to sound like people are so willing to grovel to him. The false story gets him nothing and the fallout costs the United States."
"Something to ponder for those Polish politicians who are investing all their chips in the fickle — as we can see yet again — favor of the Orange Genius and Winner of All Wars," noted Polityka's Michal Danielewski.
"Trump has never met an ally he does not try to screw over in the end," snarled MS NOW contributor Marc Polymeropoulos.
"Incredible (and real, not fake) thrashing of Trump but the PM who was at one time probably his strongest supporter in Europe (aside from the departed Orban)," noted author Gary Lucas.
"Trump just can’t keep himself from bullying women. It’s basic to his nature," said Phillips P. OBrien, a professor at the University of St. Andrews.
"She sounds genuinely fed up with this," added Alex Clarkson, a lecturer at King's College in London.
"Meloni is a fascist and all that, but it likely took a beautiful blonde who is one of Trump's only European allies to really kick back for his ... abuse of women," argued legal expert Marcy Wheeler.
"Trump has been crossing far too many lines," opined FirstPost's Sreemoy Talukdar. "An egomaniac whose senility has gone ahead of his low cunning. Behaves like a wet cat before autocrats and dictators, piles on leaders of democracies."
"I'm afraid that the war @POTUS is waging with @GiorgiaMeloni will end for the US president just like the conflict with Iran," concluded Marek Magierowski, former Polish ambassador to the U.S. and Israel. "The prime minister has boiled over, like Mount Vesuvius. I know a few Italian women, and I wouldn't want to get into an argument with any of them. By the way, I don't recall such a sharp, public clash between the leaders of two allied nations in recent years."