by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
ROME (Worthy News) – Italy says it will stop responding to what it called provocative remarks by U.S. President Donald J. Trump in an effort to avoid further tensions between the NATO allies.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy had decided not to engage with Trump’s increasingly personal attacks on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ahead of a NATO military alliance summit in Turkey.
“Trump speaks for himself. We have a U.S. president who loves to provoke, especially on social media. We have decided to stop responding to these remarks so as not to fuel disputes among our allies,” Tajani told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
He stressed that Italy would remain a close strategic ally of both the United States and Europe.
DIPLOMATIC TENSIONS
The latest dispute follows Trump’s claim that Meloni had “begged” him for a photograph during last month’s Group of Seven (G7) summit in France, an allegation the Italian prime minister dismissed as fabricated.
Shortly before the NATO gathering, Trump reignited the controversy by posting on Truth Social a picture of Meloni looking up at him with the caption: “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”
The relationship between the two leaders has deteriorated, despite Meloni once being regarded as one of Trump’s closest European allies and the only European leader to attend his 2025 inauguration.
The rift widened after Meloni criticized Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo over the pontiff’s condemnation of the Iran conflict. Trump responded by accusing the Italian leader of lacking courage. Relations were further strained after Italy declined to allow U.S. military aircraft to use a base in Sicily for operations linked to the Middle East conflict, citing the lack of prior authorization.
Despite the public disagreement, Italian officials insist they intend to preserve strong transatlantic ties and avoid escalating tensions as NATO leaders meet to discuss the alliance’s security challenges.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
At least three people were killed and dozens more injured Wednesday as Russia and Ukraine exchanged fresh long-range attacks, while Kyiv struck deep inside Russia, forcing the shutdown of the country’s largest oil refinery and raising fresh concerns about the Kremlin’s fuel supplies.
The NATO military alliance, long seen as a symbol of unity among Western allies, faced growing internal strife Wednesday as Denmark vowed to defend its territory after U.S. President Donald J. Trump again insisted that the United States should control the strategically located Arctic territory of Greenland.
A court in Pakistan’s Punjab province has acquitted Dennis Albert, a Christian man who had spent nearly 19 months in custody in a blasphemy case, but concerns remained Wednesday over the safety of Christians in the region after reports that another Christian family’s home was torched in an alleged revenge attack.
More than 1,000 suspected human traffickers have been arrested and over 2,000 victims identified in one of the world’s largest coordinated crackdowns on modern slavery, the international police organization Interpol announced.
Italy says it will stop responding to what it called provocative remarks by U.S. President Donald J. Trump in an effort to avoid further tensions between the NATO allies.
Hungary’s state-owned public news broadcasters, long criticized for their close ties to former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, went off the air Tuesday after apologizing for what they described as years of lying to the public in an unprecedented move launched under the current government.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump ordered an “immediate” halt to trade with Spain on Wednesday, sharply escalating tensions with the NATO military alliance ally over defense spending and its refusal to support U.S. military operations against Iran.