Trump slams Meloni in Italian newspaper interview: ‘I’m shocked by her’ 

President Trump lashed out at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, telling an Italian newspaper he was “shocked” by the leader’s criticism of his comments admonishing Pope Leo XIV.

“Do Italians like the fact that your prime minister isn’t giving us any help to get oil?” Trump said in a phone interview with Corriere della Sera. “Do people like her? I can’t imagine. I’m shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”

Trump’s criticism comes after Meloni hit the president on Monday over his recent attacks on the pope, calling the president’s comments “unacceptable.”

“I find President Trump’s words toward the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni, who leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, said in a statement. Meloni has been considered to be one European leader that stood with Trump but like others around Europe, her country has not heeded Trump’s calls to help with opening the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he calls for peace and condemns every form of war,” she said.

Trump said on Tuesday “it’s her who’s unacceptable,” referring to Meloni.

“Because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if she had the chance,” he said.

When asked if he’s spoken with Meloni, he said the two have not spoken “in a long time.”

Meloni has visited the White House at least twice last year during Trump’s second term, once solo for a bilateral in the Oval Office and again last August as part of a contingent of European leaders meeting about Ukraine.

Trump also used the interview with the Italian outlet to launch a fresh attack on the pope, saying he does not understand the situation in the Middle East.

 “He doesn’t understand and shouldn’t be talking about war, because he has no idea what’s going on. He doesn’t understand that 42,000 protesters were killed in Iran last month,” Trump said.

Italy is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which has been the subject of Trump’s wrath over its member country’s reluctance to assist the U.S. in securing Iran’s Strait of Hormuz during the war in Iran.

When asked if he wanted the Italians and Europeans to use minesweepers, which is a small warship used to detonate and remove naval mines, Trump said he asked them to send “whatever they want.”

“But they don’t want to because NATO is a paper tiger,” the president said.

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