{"id":50605,"date":"2026-04-14T16:17:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50605"},"modified":"2026-04-14T16:17:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:17:52","slug":"trump-says-italian-pm-meloni-lacks-courage-on-iran-war-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50605","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Italian PM Meloni lacks \u2018courage\u2019 on Iran war: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2026\/04\/1421024479fbb68.webp\" \/><\/p>\n<p>US President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched a stinging criticism of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of his main European allies, over her unwillingness to join the Iran war.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,\u201d he said in an interview with Italian daily <em>Corriere della Sera<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The interview was published the day after Meloni condemned as \u201cunacceptable\u201d Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1991310\/trump-says-not-a-big-fan-of-pope-leo-after-his-anti-war-message\">criticism <\/a>of Pope Leo XIV, after the pontiff\u2019s repeated calls for an end to the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full sm:w-1\/2  media--right    media--uneven  media--stretch\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1991630\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--newskitlink  \">    <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Trump told <em>Corriere<\/em> that it was she who was \u201cunacceptable\u201d, alleging she did not care if Iran had a nuclear weapon, adding that she did not want Italy to be involved in the war, which began with Israeli-US attacks on Iran, even though it gets much of its oil from the region.<\/p>\n<p>Meloni, Italy\u2019s far-right <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1712104\">leader <\/a>since October 2022, has been one of Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1883418\">closest allies<\/a> in Europe and often seeks to act as a mediator between diverging US and European views.<\/p>\n<p>Meloni\u2019s allies and political opponents were swift to offer their support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are and remain staunch supporters of Western unity and steadfast allies of the United States, but this unity is built on mutual loyalty, respect, and honesty,\u201d Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--left    media--uneven  media--stretch\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Antonio_Tajani\/status\/2044064197521104905?s=20\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--twitter  \"><span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Antonio_Tajani\/status\/2044064197521104905?s=20\"><\/a>\n    <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>He said that until now, Trump considered Meloni a courageous person, and \u201che was not mistaken, but she is a woman who never shies away from saying what she thinks\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd on Pope Leo XIV she said exactly what all of us Italians think. The prime minister and the government defend and will always defend only and solely the interests of Italy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, condemned Trump\u2019s \u201cserious lack of respect\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur constitution is clear \u2014 Italy repudiates war,\u201d she added in parliament.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1991715\/trump-says-italian-pm-meloni-lacks-courage-on-iran-war-report\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched a stinging criticism of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of his main European allies, over her unwillingness to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertaonment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}