Donald Trump has launched a fierce broadside at Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni after she took aim at his comments about Pope Leo XIV.
Meloni heads Italy’s right-wing governing coalition and, since Trump returned to the White House, the pair had been seen as broadly aligned and on friendly terms.
That dynamic has now cooled, with Meloni — a practising Catholic — pushing back after Trump levelled criticism at the pontiff, describing the Pope as ‘terrible for foreign policy’, and ‘weak on crime’.
Trump’s remarks followed Pope Leo’s public condemnation of the ongoing war with Iran, a conflict in which Trump had previously warned that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’.
The Pope, the first US citizen to become leader of the Catholic Church, later told reporters: “I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do.”
When asked about the dispute, Meloni said: “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.”
Trump has since escalated the row, criticising Meloni during a phone interview with Italian newspaper Corriera Della Sera.
Responding directly to her comments, Trump said: “It’s her who’s unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance.”
He also said he had been left ‘shocked by her’, adding: “I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”
In the same interview, Trump accused Meloni of refusing to support the US effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said: “She doesn’t think Italy should be involved. She thinks America should do the job for her.”
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital chokepoint for global energy, with roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil shipments passing through it. Iran shut it after Israel and the US began their war against the Islamic Republic.
With the route blocked, oil prices have surged, adding to volatility across international markets.
Meloni and Trump have previously found common cause on issues such as immigration, where both have taken hardline positions.
However, Trump’s very public clash with Pope Leo appears to have created a deepening rift between the two leaders.
Trump has also claimed he played a role in Leo’s election during the latest conclave, arguing the new pontiff was chosen because he was American and that it would help the Vatican manage relations with him, saying he was elected as pontiff ‘because he was American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J Trump.”
He added: “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
There are around 70 million Catholics in the US — about one fifth of the population — making it the world’s fourth-largest Catholic population after Brazil, Mexico, and The Philippines.