{"id":39249,"date":"2026-06-19T14:22:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/?p=39249"},"modified":"2026-06-19T14:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:39:11","slug":"trump-wuenscht-sich-ein-betteln-italien-bettelt-nicht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/en\/trump-wuenscht-sich-ein-betteln-italien-bettelt-nicht\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Wants to Be Begged, Italy Does Not Beg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump claimed on Italian television that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni begged him for a photograph at the G7 summit and that he agreed only out of pity. Rome reacted sharply, the foreign minister canceled his trip to Washington, and Meloni replied that neither she nor Italy begs.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

On Friday morning, in an interview with the Italian broadcaster La7, Trump was supposed to speak about Ukraine. Instead, he turned to Giorgia Meloni and offered his version of their encounter at the G7 summit. She was probably happy that he spoke with her, he said, and he did not even have to speak with her. She had begged him so much for a photograph that he normally would not have done it, but he felt sorry for her. In his version of events, Italy\u2019s prime minister stood before him like a petitioner, and he, the generous one, granted her the favor out of pity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting was recorded. The two were seen speaking several times in Evian and at one point sitting together alone on a small sofa. La7, which drew the remarks from him, later aired them in an Italian voiceover rather than in the original English. So the begging exists in the retelling, not in the footage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rome did not let it pass. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly canceled his trip to the United States scheduled for June 21 and 22 and called Trump\u2019s remarks serious and insulting, both for Meloni and for all of Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meloni responded in a video, saying that some things deserve an immediate reply. Trump\u2019s statements were completely fabricated, she said, and she was sincerely stunned. She did not know why the president of the United States behaved this way toward his own allies, and she added that it was not the first time. The only shame, she continued, was that he did not show the same determination toward the enemies of the West and the United States, whose leaders he instead treated with far greater leniency. But there was one thing he should remember: neither she nor Italy ever begs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n