Trump turns on Meloni, saying she lacks ‘courage’ over US-Israel war on Iran

The US president says he is ‘shocked at her’, delivering a blunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies.United States President Donald Trump has attacked Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of his main European allies, over her unwillingness to join the war on Iran.“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” he said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Meloni’s Trump trouble: Why Italian PM is distancing herself from US leaderlist 2 of 4Why Israel’s attacks on Lebanon could cripple US-Iran ceasefirelist 3 of 4Italy suspends defence agreement with Israellist 4 of 4Trump deletes image of himself as Jesus-like saviour after backlashend of listThe interview was published the day after Meloni condemned as “unacceptable” Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV, following the pontiff’s repeated calls for an end to the war in the Middle East.“She’s unacceptable because she doesn’t mind that Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if they had the chance,” Trump said in English.Meloni, Italy’s leader since October 2022, used to be one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe and often sought to act as a mediator between diverging US and European views.But the president said they had not spoken this month, “not in a long time”, saying: “She doesn’t help us with NATO.“She doesn’t want to help get rid of a nuclear-weaponed Iran. Very sad … She’s much different than I thought,” Trump added.He described the NATO military alliance as a “paper tiger” and criticised Europe, in general, for not being “willing to fight for the Hormuz Strait, which is where they get their energy”.Trump said Meloni was “not the same person. Italy is not the same country. Immigration is killing Italy and all of Europe.”Local support for MeloniThe Italian prime minister’s allies and political opponents were swift to offer their support.