Italy will refrain from responding to provocative public statements from U.S. President Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday as NATO leaders gathered in Turkey.
Tajani told La Stampa that Rome will decline to engage with the U.S. president's remarks, saying "He speaks for himself. We have a U.S. President who loves to provoke, especially on social media. We have decided to stop responding to these remarks so as not to fuel disputes among our allies."
The announcement follows a disagreement between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Mr. Trump that surfaced last month. Mr. Trump told an Italian television channel that Ms. Meloni had "begged" him to take a photograph with her at a G7 summit in France, an account the prime minister publicly disputed.
With both Ms. Meloni and Mr. Trump present at the NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday, the U.S. president posted an image on Truth Social showing Ms. Meloni looking up at him accompanied by the caption "RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED." Tajani emphasized that, despite the decision to avoid public responses, Italy remains a close partner to the United States.
"We are and will remain friends of the United States as our strategic partner and that of Europe," Tajani said, underscoring the formal diplomatic ties between the two countries even as Rome seeks to limit public back-and-forth.
Ms. Meloni has been a supporter of Mr. Trump in the past and was noted as the only European leader to attend his inauguration in 2025. More recently, she publicly criticized Mr. Trump for his remarks directed at Pope Leo over the pope's statements about the Iran conflict. In response to those criticisms, Mr. Trump accused Ms. Meloni of lacking courage.
The foreign minister's statement frames Rome's approach as an effort to prevent interpersonal disputes from escalating into broader tensions among allied governments, while maintaining official strategic relations with the United States and Europe.