Meloni seeks to cool tensions with Trump after G7 photo row

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said she sees no threat to relations between Italy and the United States despite her recent public row with President Donald Trump.

Speaking at an event hosted by the newspaper La Verità in Rome on Tuesday, the far-right prime minister said cooperation between the two countries rested on "such a long and solid history" that it would not be called into question by "a discussion on social media."

Tensions between Trump and Meloni had flared in recent days, triggered by the US president's claim that Meloni had "begged" him for a photo at the recent G7 summit in the French spa town of Évian, and that he had felt sorry for her.

Meloni pushed back sharply, calling the claim "completely made up." In a further exchange on social media, she rebuked him again.

Asked about the dispute, Meloni said she had been genuinely upset by the row but had no intention of inflaming it further. "I think our bilateral cooperation with the US should return to normality," she said.

Meloni also stressed that she had no intention of changing Italy's foreign policy direction. "Italian foreign policy will remain the same as it has been for the last 80 years - maintaining firm relations with the US and the EU, because that is what the strength of the West is based on," she said.

She added that, aside from the recent spat, cooperation between the two countries had also gone well in recent weeks and months.

However, the previously close relationship had already taken a significant hit earlier. Trump criticized Meloni sharply in April after she described his verbal attacks on Pope Leo XIV as "unacceptable."