Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was supposed to be the one leader in Western Europe with whom Donald Trump could get along. Indeed, for months, the American president singled out Meloni, one of the region’s most conservative figures, for praise, celebrating her as a “beautiful young woman” who took Europe “by storm.”

The Italian prime minister was the only European leader to attend his second inauguration, which came on the heels of a Mar-a-Lago visit. Headlines that referred to Meloni as Europe’s “Trump whisperer” soon followed.

In April, however, the relationship started to deteriorate. After the Republican picked a bizarre fight with Pope Leo XIV, Meloni defended the pontiff. The presidential whine was almost immediate: Trump complained that Meloni is “very different from what I thought,” adding, “I’m shocked by her. I ⁠thought she had courage. I was wrong.” He added, “She is the one who is unacceptable.”

Two months later, the American president, already short on friends, made matters vastly worse. In fact, The New York Times reported, “It looks as if the Italian prime minister’s teetering relationship with President Trump may have just fallen off a cliff.” From the article:

After the president told an Italian journalist on Thursday that Ms. Meloni had “begged” him to take a photo together at the Group of 7 summit meeting in France this week, according to an English-language transcript shared by the TV reporter, Ms. Meloni called Mr. Trump’s statements “totally invented.”

“Italy and I never beg,” she proclaimed in a video posted on social media.

Meloni’s frustration appeared palpable in the video. She talked about being “appalled” by Trump’s “fabricated” claims. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves like this with his own allies,” the prime minister added.

True to form, the Republican did what he nearly always does: He doubled and tripled down on the dubious claims that generated the international incident in the first place. On Saturday morning, by way of his social media platform, Trump not only repeated his underlying claim, insisting that Meloni “asked, over and over, for a picture with me” during the G-7 summit, but he even concocted a narrative to support his story.

To hear the American president tell it, Meloni is “doing poorly” politically because Italians wanted her to do more to support the U.S. war in Iran. This, according to his weird version of events, is why she tried to cozy up to Trump in France, in order to “get her ‘numbers up.’”

While I’m not privy to the details of the two leaders’ private interactions, Trump’s story is very difficult to believe — not just because he’s peddled similar absurdities before, but because he’s not at all popular in Italy, and the prime minister has no political incentive to be seen with him.

“These constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless,” Meloni said after Trump’s weekend broadside. The Republican nevertheless kept going on Sunday afternoon, again whining about Italy steering clear of his failed war in Iran.

It was around this time that Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani canceled a planned visit to the United States, and other Italian officials reportedly scrapped plans to attend U.S. Independence Day celebrations scheduled in Rome.

“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,” Fazzolari added.

It’s unrealistic to think Trump will learn any lessons from the war he launched in Iran, but one of the things the president should have gleaned from recent months is that there’s real value in having allies willing to partner with you during a crisis.

It’s a point that appears to have eluded the Republican, as he continues to alienate, offend, insult and exasperate countries that have been aligned with the United States for generations.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

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