The distance between Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni, his greatest ally in Europe, is evident. The president of the United States said this Tuesday that he was surprised by the Italian prime minister, after calling her criticism of Pope Leo XIV “unacceptable.” In fact, he stressed that “she is the unacceptable one.”
In an exclusive interview with the Italian newspaper and asked about Meloni’s reaction, Trump has been blunt: “She is the one who is unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if she had the chance.”
Likewise, he has taken the opportunity to return to someone who said that “he does not understand, and should not talk about war, because he has no idea what is happening. He does not understand that 42,000 protesters were killed in Iran last month.”
This Sunday the president of the United States described the Holy Father as “terrible in foreign policy” and urged him to “stop pandering to the radical left.” “Pope Leo is WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy.” In addition, he urged him to “concentrate on being a great Pope, not a politician,” because “he is harming the Catholic Church.”
During a flight to Algeria, Leo XIV recalled a day later that “the Gospel is clear” and that “the Church has the moral obligation to go against war.” “The things I say do not have to be understood as an attack on anyone. The message of the gospel is very clear: Blessed are those who build peace.” In addition, he claimed to be “not afraid” of the Trump Administration.
In the interview with the Italian newspaper, done by telephone and lasting just six minutes, Trump insisted on targeting the Italian prime minister for her alleged inaction in the conflict in the Middle East and accused her of wanting “the United States to do the job for her.” “He is no longer the same person, and Immigration is killing Italy and all of Europe,” he declared, after confirming that He and Meloni haven’t spoken “in a long time.”
Distance with its greatest ally in Europe
“Do you like the fact that your president is not doing anything to get the oil? Do people like her? I can’t imagine. I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage, I was wrong,” Trump declared in his conversation with the Italian newspaper.
The president justified this distancing because, according to him, Meloni does not want to help us get rid of the nuclear weapon. It’s very different from what I thought.” “He just says that Italy doesn’t want to be involved. Although Italy gets its oil from there, although the United States is very important to Italy. “He doesn’t think Italy should be involved,” he said.
Trump then noted that Europe “is destroying itself from within with its energy policies.” “They pay the highest energy costs in the world and are not even willing to fight for where they get it from. They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open,” he said.
In this sense, when asked by the Italian newspaper, he revealed that he had requested Italy to send minesweepers to the area, without success. “I have asked to send everything they want, but they don’t want to because NATO is a paper tiger,” he concluded.
Meloni’s words
It was this Monday when the Italian prime minister criticized the words of the president of the United States. “I thought that the meaning of my statement this morning had been clear, but I reiterate it with greater clarity. C addressed to the Holy Father,” Meloni said in a statement.
The head of the Italian Executive stressed that the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church and that it is “just and normal that he invokes peace and condemns any form of war.” This reaction came after the unanimous rejection of the entire Talian political circle that called the president “weak on crime” and “terrible in foreign policy.”
