President Donald Trump said he was “shocked” that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized his comments about Pope Leo XIV.
After Trump called Leo “weak” on Sunday and criticized him for his comments on the war in Iran and on deportations, Meloni called Trump’s words “unacceptable.”
Trump retorted that Meloni is “unacceptable.”
“Do Italians like the fact that your prime minister isn’t giving us any help to get oil?” Trump said in a phone interview with an Italian news outlet Tuesday. “Do people like her? I can’t imagine. I’m shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”
Trump said he hasn’t spoken to the right-leaning politician in a long time.
Meloni, who leads the Brothers of Italy party, said it’s normal for the pope to comment on world events.
“The pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he calls for peace and condemns every form of war,” she said.
Trump and Meloni previously had a warm relationship, with Meloni visiting Mar-a-Lago as the president’s guest last year. Meloni was the only foreign leader invited to Trump’s January 2025 inauguration.
However, Italy did not allow American bombers to refuel in Sicily during the Iran operation.
“When we don’t agree, we must say it. And this time, we do not agree,” Meloni said of the war in Iran.
Trump said Meloni “doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance.”
“Meloni doesn’t want to help us with NATO, she doesn’t want to help us get rid of the nuclear weapon,” he said. “She’s very different from what I thought.”
