President Donald Trump slammed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday after she criticized him for his feud with Pope Leo XIV, calling her “unacceptable” and saying he felt “shocked by her.”
Speaking to Italy’s Corriere della Sera, Trump said Meloni was “very different from what I thought,” and added that he was “shocked” by her. The clash marks a turn in a relationship that, until recently, had been one of the strongest links between Trump and a major European leader.
Trump also criticized Meloni for refusing to support U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy shipping route that has been blocked by Iran as a result of the war. In one of the sharpest lines from the interview, he said, “She is the one who is unacceptable, because she does not care whether Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow Italy up in two minutes if it had the chance.
Meloni had been a vocal supporter of Trump and was the only European leader to attend his 2025 inauguration. Just a month ago, Trump publicly praised her as “a great leader.” That tone changed after Meloni distanced herself from Trump following the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and then openly criticized his attack on Pope Leo. Meloni said in a statement that “the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war.”
On April 8, Pope Leo XIV began criticizing the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, calling for a ceasefire, and saying negotiations were the only real path forward. He also condemned Trump’s threat in which he said that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not comply with U.S. demands. Three days later, Leo denounced what he called a “delusion of omnipotence” behind the war, warning against glorifying power and wealth and against invoking God to justify military action.
The next day, Trump responded to Pope Leo XIV’s criticism with a string of personal and political attacks, escalating what has become one of the most unusual public clashes between a sitting U.S. president and the head of the Catholic Church. In social media posts and public remarks, Trump called Leo “weak,” said he was captive to the “Radical Left,” and described him as “terrible for foreign policy.” He also suggested that Leo was only elected as Pope to appeal to him, as they are both American.
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