Trump and Meloni – is their friendship over?

This tirade was triggered by Giorgia Meloni’s unequivocal reaction to Trump’s attack on Pope Leo IV. The US President described it as “weak” and “miserable” in terms of foreign policy. Meloni spoke out on Monday evening and described the criticism of the Pope as “unacceptable”.

Trump didn’t like that at all and so she had to find out what ‘best friends’ meant in the case of the US President. You are only a “best friend” as long as you bow to Trump’s wishes and demands. Meloni has now broken this rule, which is why he has terminated his friendship with her.

At least for now. At the beginning of March, when Italy agreed to provide naval support after an Iranian drone attack on Cyprus, Trump was full of praise. “She helps us whenever she can,” he said at the time, adding: “She’s a great politician and she’s a friend.”

Now the world looks completely different. In the interview, it is Trump who is the first to ask: “The Italians like that your boss refuses to give us any help to get the oil?” The allusion refers to Italy’s decision to take part in securing the Strait of Hormuz only after a ceasefire and within the framework of a NATO alliance. “She doesn’t want to help us with NATO, she doesn’t want to help us against an Iran in possession of a nuclear weapon. She is completely different than I had assessed her.”

Europe also got its fat

The journalist wanted to know what would change after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was voted out. Orbán and Meloni were, after all, his best friends. Trump replied “Nothing,” because Europe, for example, had long “took the wrong direction” when it came to migration. And the same applies to the energy supply. Europe pays the highest energy prices in the world, “but is not willing to fight for the Strait of Hormuz.”

It may well be that Meloni’s criticism from the day before yesterday was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. A few weeks ago, Italy refused to allow two US fighter jets on their way to Iran to stop at the US base in Sigonella in Sicily. The justification was that the agreements only provided for defense and not attacks.

For the time being, Meloni has refrained from making an official statement on Trump’s censorious words.