President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni‘s international feud continues on the second day of the NATO summit.
The tension has been brewing between Trump, 80, and Meloni, 49, for over a year, with both leaders exchanging fake hugs, dirty looks, and wild remarks about each other.
Meloni attended Trump’s inauguration in 2025 and was once called Europe’s “Trump whisperer” before the two right-wing ideologues had a very public falling-out.
Trump thought he would show Meloni how he treats people after a heated moment.
Both leaders came face-to-face again at the 2026 NATO summit this week in Ankara, Turkey, alongside representatives from numerous other aligned countries.
Secretary General Mark Rutte and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted the heads of state for a “family” photo shoot on July 8.
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Meloni took her spot on the second riser before Trump even entered the room, giving cameras the perfect angle to capture her reaction to his arrival.
Once he stepped in front of his Italian counterpart, Meloni smiled and looked down at the ground.
A gold-tie-wearing Trump did not look directly at her either as he strolled past Meloni, as if he had no idea who she was.
A photo capturing the moment Trump passed by Meloni showed the Italian PM with a broad smile while the American commander-in-chief appeared dejected.
That icy interaction between Meloni and Trump became a major talking point as social media users weighed in on the unwelcoming exchange.
“If I were her, I’d have tripped him,” a Threads poster jokingly hoped. A second commenter expressed, “Good for her, at least she has balls the other so-called leaders do not.”
Similarly, someone added, “Good for her. I disagree with almost all of her policies, but I respect the way she stands up for herself and her country. I wish more of those men would take a lesson from her.”
Trump’s notorious ego came into play when one person wrote, “That is actually the biggest affront to a narcissist. Attention is their fuel, so ignoring them is kryptonite.”
A few people focused heavily on Meloni’s smiles and smirks, wondering exactly what was going on in her head. An X user admitted, “I love how much she’s laughing at Trump.”
“She’s laughing at him because he can’t even look her in the eye after lying about her,” read one tweet regarding Meloni grinning behind Trump’s back.
Another person wondered, “Is she smirking at the moron?”
The questions resumed when a commenter sarcastically asked, “Why would she want to look at a human pig?”
The Trump versus Meloni rivalry kicked into high gear in March after Italy blocked the U.S. from using a military base in Sicily for combat operations in the ongoing Iran War.
Then the rivalry escalated in April when Meloni criticized Trump for slamming the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, as “weak on crime.”
Trump and Meloni later crossed paths at the G7 summit in France. That face-to-face meeting in June sparked a wild news cycle that had global implications.
“She begged me to take a photo with her. She wanted a photo with me so badly. I could have skipped it, but I felt sorry for her,” Trump alleged in an interview with the Italian outlet LA7.
Meloni said she was “astonished” by Trump’s remarks and insisted that his story about her purportedly begging for a photograph was “completely made up.”
It also didn’t match other footage from the G7 summit, which shows her pointing her finger repeatedly at Trump while he stood there like a child being scolded.
Trump wants RESTRAINING ORDER against Meloni ‘BEGGING’ for photo with him pic.twitter.com/yd30L5Rn1t
— RT (@RT_com) July 5, 2026
Prior to heading to Turkey, Trump doubled down, implying that Meloni is so attracted to him she can’t stay away.
On July 5, the MAGA boss shared a meme of Meloni looking at him, with the caption “Restraining Order Needed.”
However, Trump backed off his attacks on Meloni during a press conference in Turkey on July 8. A reporter asked the former reality television star about his Truth Social post.
“I think she’s a nice person, actually,” Trump said about Meloni during a sit-down with Erdoğan ahead of the full NATO summit. “We had a bad relationship, but it became a little bad because she refused to help us.”
The POTUS further addressed Meloni not entirely backing America’s efforts in Iran, adding, “She refused to get involved, so it soured my relationship with her a little bit, but I like her. I think she’s a nice person.”
