WASHINGTON — President Trump restarted his feud with Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni over the weekend, deploying a meme-based attack to imply that she is obsessed with him.
On Sunday, Trump posted an image of Meloni gazing up at him with a beatific smile under the caption “Restraining order needed,” recalling their stunning war of words that erupted last month following the G7 summit in France.
The president had disparaged Meloni in an interview with Italian broadcaster La7, saying: “She’s probably happy I talked to her. She wanted a photo with me so much. I wouldn’t have even done it, but I felt sorry for her.”
Meloni responded that she was “appalled” by Trump’s words and claimed his account was “fabricated.” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also scrapped a planned visit to the US in response.
“I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way towards his allies; after all, it’s not the first time it’s happened,” Meloni fired back in a social media post.
“I can only say it’s a pity that he doesn’t show the same determination with the enemies of the West, with the enemies of the United States.”
Trump later explained that his beef with Meloni stemmed from Italy denying American bombers the ability to use the Sicily-based Naval Air Station Sigonella for bombing operations in Iran.
Meloni countered that its bases are “governed by agreements that we have always respected, and that cannot be violated as long as I am prime minister.”
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Trump and Meloni are likely to cross paths again at this week’s summit of NATO leaders in Ankara, Turkey.
Meloni and Trump had once been considered kindred spirits, with both of them holding restrictionist views on immigration.
The 49-year-old, who Trump once described as a “beautiful young woman,” was the only European leader to attend his inauguration in January of last year.
