Why Is Trump Targeting Meloni Now Suddenly ?

Amid the recent geopolitical tensions between USA and Iran and the high-profile G7 Summit in France, what has suddenly caught the attention of the global media and the political community is the public fallout between Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who are now involved in a fiery exchange of statements. The war of words seems to be not stopping anytime sooner.

It all started with Trump publicly claiming in a live interview with Italian media that he only agreed for a photograph with Meloni during G7 Summit after she desperately pleaded him for one. Meloni quickly fired back, expressing utter shock at the US President statement and dismissed his version.

In reply, Trump has hit back at Meloni again over the controversy today. Taking to his social media platform X, Trump doubled down on his narrative, claiming that Meloni repeatedly pressed him for a photo. He argued that the Italian leader is using these public attacks to deflect from her poor performance back at home.

Trump asserted that Meloni is performing badly as Prime Minister of Italy and wanted to improve her graph by associating with him. He went on to attribute Meloni’s declining popularity to her geopolitical decisions, specifically criticizing her for not backing the United States against Iran.

Though it appears to be a sudden public fight between these two global leaders, there are several other strategic reasons behind their fallout as per political observers.

Meloni has publicly declared the US – Iran war illegal and refused to support Trump’s aggression. She also didn’t allow U.S. bombers to use a critical military airbase in Sicily during the war. This has reportedly irked Trump very much. Also, when Trump launched a series of verbal attacks against Pope, Meloni publicly condemned his statements and supported the religious leader.

So, Trump seems to be targeting Meloni now because she refused to provide military access for his war and also supported the Pope against him.