Outrage in Italy after Trump says Meloni 'begged' for photo

ROME, June 19 (Agencies): Italy reacted angrily on Friday after reported comments by US President Donald Trump mocking Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with the foreign minister cancelling a planned US visit.
Meloni said she was "frankly stunned" by Trump's comments to Italian channel La7.
According to a written transcript of the phone interview provided to AFP by the network, he said Meloni "begged me for a picture" at the G7 summit this week and he agreed only because he "felt sorry for her".
He also suggested that Meloni was probably "happy that I talked to her, I didn't have to talk to her".
Meloni called what Trump said "made up", adding: "Neither I nor Italy ever beg."
"I don't know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies," the far-right leader wrote on X.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused her one-time close ally Donald Trump of fabricating a story about her on Friday, after the US President told an Italian TV channel that she had "begged" him to take a photo with her at a G7 summit.
Meloni said she was "astonished" by his comments, which were "completely made up". She also chided him for acting with far greater deference to the enemies of the West than he does towards old, established allies.
Underscoring how much Trump's comments have angered Meloni's government, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced he was cancelling a planned visit to the US next week.
The latest exchange marks a sharp deterioration in ties, coming just days after signs emerged at the G7 summit that the two right-wing leaders had steadied a previously strained relationship following tensions this year over the war on Iran.
Video from the event in France showed Meloni and Trump deep in conversation, sitting side-by-side on a small sofa, but the US leader suggested he had merely indulged her by chatting with her.
"She's probably happy I talked to her. I didn't have to talk to her," Trump was quoted as saying by La7 TV channel in a brief interview, after he himself asked the journalist about Italy's prime minister.
"She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn't have taken it, but I felt sorry for her," Trump said, according to La7's translation.
The channel did not release the original audio, just a dubbed version.
Meloni responded: "Donald Trump's statements are completely made up. I am frankly astonished. I don't know why the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies: it is not the first time, moreover."
"I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence," she said, adding: "There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg."
Announcing the cancellation of his planned US trip, Foreign Minister Tajani said on X: "The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend the whole of Italy."
One of Meloni's closest political allies, who usually shuns the media spotlight, struck out at Trump using a tone that would have been unthinkable beforehand.
Italy's foreign minister on Friday cancelled a visit to the United States over reported comments by US President Donald Trump that appeared to mock Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
"The grave and offensive words of President Trump... offend the whole of Italy," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who had been due to visit the US on June 21 and 22, said on X.