Italian ‌prime minister Giorgia Meloni has accused her one-time close ally Donald Trump of fabricating a story about her on Friday, after the US president told an Italian TV channel that she had “begged” ​him to take a photograph with her at the recent G7 summit. Meloni said she was “astonished” by Trump’s comments, which she said were “completely made up”. She also chided Trump for acting with far greater deference to the enemies of the West than he does towards old, established allies. Underscoring how much Trump’s comments have angered Meloni’s government, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani announced he was ​cancelling a planned visit to the US next week. The latest exchange marks a sharp deterioration in ties, coming just days after signs emerged at the G7 summit in France that the ⁠two right-wing leaders had steadied a previously strained relationship following tensions this year over the war on Iran. Video from the event in France ‌showed ‌Meloni ​and Trump deep in conversation, sitting side-by-side on a small sofa, but the US leader suggested he had merely indulged her by chatting with her.“She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her,” ⁠Trump was quoted as saying by La7 TV channel ​in a brief interview, after he himself asked the journalist about Italy’s prime ​minister.“She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I ‌felt sorry for her,” Trump said, according to La7’s translation.The ​channel did not release the original audio, just a dubbed version.Meloni responded: “Donald Trump’s statements are completely made ⁠up. I am frankly astonished. I don’t know why the ⁠president of the United States behaves ​like this towards his allies: it is not the first time, moreover.”“I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence,” she said, adding: “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.” Announcing the cancellation of his planned US trip, foreign minister Tajani said on X: “The serious and offensive words of president Trump towards prime minister Giorgia Meloni offend the whole of Italy.” US president Donald Trump and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni during the recent G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/AFP via Getty Images One of Meloni’s closest political allies, who usually shuns the media spotlight, struck ‌out at Trump using a tone ⁠that would have been unthinkable beforehand. “It is unclear whether out of intent or ineptitude [Trump] is wrecking the historic relations between the United States and Europe,” Giovanbattista Fazzolari, undersecretary to the prime minister’s office, said in a statement. “With his inappropriate outbursts, he has managed ‌no easy feat, to make the United States unpopular across the entire European continent, damaging not only Europe but above all the United States,” he added. Meloni was once a vocal ​supporter of Trump and was the only European leader to attend his inauguration in 2025. However, she ​criticised him this year for lashing out at Pope Leo over his condemnation of the Iran conflict. That in turn prompted a blunt rebuke from the US president, who accused her of lacking courage. – Reuters