Meloni Tells New York Times: Thought Alliance With Trump 'Would Be Easier'

Giorgia Meloni built her foreign policy brand on being the European leader who could talk to Donald Trump. She was the only European head of government at his January 2025 inauguration. She spent much of last year positioning herself as the bridge between the White House and Brussels.

In an interview published Friday, August 21, by the New York Times, conducted by Paris bureau chief Roger Cohen, Meloni said plainly that shared ground with Trump on immigration and opposition to what she calls woke culture hasn't made things easy. "It is clear that, with Donald Trump, I thought things would be easier, given our convergence on immigration and woke culture. But things turned out differently," she said, according to the Times and confirmed by Italian outlets Corriere della Sera and ANSA.

Weeks of silence, one ugly public spat

Meloni told the Times she and Trump haven't spoken in several weeks. Asked if they'd talk after the summer break, her answer was noncommittal: "We will see."

The breakdown traces to June, according to ANSA. The two last spoke directly on June 17 at the G7 summit in Evian, France. Afterward, Trump told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni had "begged" him for a photo together and that he agreed because he "felt sorry for her," according to ANSA and brusselssignal.eu.

Meloni fired back hard. "Trump's statements are totally made up. I am frankly stunned. Italy and I never beg," she said in a video response cited by ANSA, drawing solidarity from European counterparts gathered in Brussels at the time. Her Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, canceled a planned trip to Washington in protest, a move Meloni later called the right call "to send a signal," according to Breitbart's account of a separate interview she gave to Italian journalist Maurizio Belpietro.

Trump escalated on Truth Social, posting that Meloni was polling badly at home and, per brusselssignal.eu, later shared an image of himself next to her captioned "Needs a restraining order." Meloni responded that being his friend hadn't helped her poll numbers and that the repeated attacks made no sense.

The Iran base dispute predates the photo fight

The tension didn't start with a photo op. Brusselssignal.eu reports Italy refused landing rights at the Sigonella naval air station in Sicily in late March to U.S. aircraft whose flight plans were tied to strikes on Iran, on grounds that Washington hadn't sought required authorization. Italy has since disputed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's claim that hundreds of U.S. aircraft used Italian bases during that campaign, saying it cleared only technical and logistical flights.

That dispute set the table for the public friction that followed. The two leaders last appeared together at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8, where Trump criticized allies who declined to help with the Iran strikes. Meloni told reporters there that Italy's position on the bases hadn't changed and that the country wasn't participating.

Meloni's own framing: principle over personality

Meloni didn't use the Times interview to torch the relationship further. She told Cohen she still believes "the unity of the West is very important" and that she doesn't "decide Italy's strategy on the basis" of personal relationships with foreign leaders. She's drawing a line between ideological alignment and national interest.

In a separate interview with Belpietro reported by Breitbart, Meloni downplayed the fallout further, saying foreign policy shouldn't be treated "like Temptation Island" and that she doesn't expect the spat to trigger tariffs or trade retaliation. She pointed to Defense Minister Guido Crosetto's recent Washington visit and meeting with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as evidence the working relationship between the two governments remains functional even if the Trump-Meloni personal channel has gone cold.

Beyond Trump: the bigger NYT profile

The Trump material was one thread in a broader Times profile marking Meloni's approaching record. On September 4, she will surpass four consecutive years as prime minister, becoming Italy's longest continuously serving head of government since the founding of the Republic, according to Corriere della Sera. The piece traces her path from joining the post-fascist youth movement at age 15 to leading Italy's largest party, and includes her defense of being addressed with the masculine "il presidente" rather than a feminized title, and her signature 2019 rally line, "I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian."

None of the outlets reviewing the interview, including Euronews, La Sicilia, and ANSA, reported any indication from Rome or Washington that a Trump-Meloni meeting is actually scheduled. Whether the two speak again once Italy's parliament returns from summer recess remains, in Meloni's own words, an open question.