Trump gets tit-for-tat response from Giorgia Meloni on Instagram

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday responded to a fresh attack by US President Donald Trump.

Taking to Instagram, she shared her response with a German language caption that read, "This is my reply to Donald Trump’s latest post concerning me. I won’t dwell on the matter any further, though, because I still believe in Western unity and I don’t think this spectacle is worthy of our shared responsibility."

Trump on Saturday lashed out at Meloni, insisting that she asked “over and over” for a photo with him at the recent Group of Seven summit and criticizing what he said was Italy’s lack of cooperation during the Iran war.

“Italian Prime Minister Gigiorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France,” Trump wrote on his social media platform while spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. He misspelled her first name in the initial post, which he later corrected.

He continued: “She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!).”

Meloni soon responded, saying in a statement to Trump that “these constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless.”

“As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you. My popularity depends on my ability to defend Italy’s national interest, and that is exactly what I have always done,” Meloni said in a post on Instagram. She added that “in any case, my popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours.”