Trump attacks Meloni after she breaks defense deal with Israel
Rome has repeatedly criticized the offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, but until now had avoided contradicting Washington
RomeDonald Trump is increasingly isolated in Europe. The estrangement between the US president and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, widened this Tuesday. Trump has accused Meloni of not having enough "courage" to give military support to Washington in the war in Iran, after the prime minister criticized Trump for his attacks on the Pope.
In a brief phone interview with Il Corriere della Sera, the North American leader said he was “surprised” and disappointed with Meloni. “Do Italians like their prime minister not helping us get oil? I am outraged. It is very different from what I thought. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong,” the North American leader assured. Trump said Meloni “simply says that Italy does not want to get involved, even though Italy gets its oil from there […] She thinks the United States should do the work for them”.
After the unprecedented attacks by the North American leader on Pope Leo XIV, whom he described as “weak on crime” and “terrible in foreign policy”, the Italian prime minister raised her voice this Monday to label the criticism of the Holy Father as “unacceptable”.
Despite the disagreements, the truth is that Meloni has so far avoided confronting Trump in public. “When you have friends and allies, especially if they are strategic, you have to have the courage to express disagreements, which is what I do every day: when I agree, I say so, just as when I don't,” Meloni told reporters during a visit to a wine fair in Verona this Tuesday.
Relations with Tel Aviv
Rome confirmed on Tuesday another significant decision: suspending the defense agreement with Israel. “In view of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the agreement”, Meloni announced. The agreement was due to be renewed on Monday, but the Italian Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, formalized the suspension through a letter sent to his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz. From now on, renewal will not be automatic but on a case-by-case basis.
The agreement established a framework for defense cooperation between Rome and Tel Aviv, including military exchange and technological research within the armed forces. It was signed on April 13, 2003, and ratified in the Italian Parliament in 2005, and provided for its renewal every five years; therefore, if it had not been suspended, it would have been extended until 2031. Its ninth article states that this automatic renewal occurs “as long as neither party” objects. Defense Ministry sources cited by Italian media consider this suspension a “political gesture”.
The suspension of the agreement comes after opposition, as well as numerous experts, urged the Italian government in recent weeks to take a step back due to the crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and, more recently, in Lebanon and Iran.
In July 2025, however, Meloni's coalition government rejected a motion from the opposition on this issue, defending the need to renew the agreement to keep diplomatic channels with Israel intact. “For diplomatic reasons to prevail, channels of dialogue must be built, not cut. Dialogue continues to be the main path, and international treaties and memorandums of understanding are also instruments of dialogue”, stated the Minister for Parliamentary Relations, Luca Ciriani, at the time.
The Italian Prime Minister has been highly critical of Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip. Meloni has even acknowledged that “the military response” to Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, “had exceeded any principle of proportionality”. And she suspended export licenses for weaponry to the Jewish state after the offensive in the Strip.
However, it has repeatedly opposed the recognition of the State of Palestine, in line with the foreign policy of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, whom Meloni has avoided criticizing in public. Furthermore, Italy has been the only European country to participate in the Gaza Peace Conference, promoted by the American leader, although it did so as an “observer” member and not with full rights.
The last criticism of Tel Aviv by Rome was on April 8, when the Italian government asked for explanations for the shots fired by the Israeli army against an Italian convoy deployed in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.
