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Trump Turns on Meloni, Says He Is ‘Shocked’ by Italian Leader

US President Donald Trump meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 17, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 17, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Turns on Meloni, Says He Is ‘Shocked’ by Italian Leader

US President Donald Trump meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 17, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 17, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump told ‌an Italian newspaper on Tuesday he was "shocked" by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and had expected her to be more courageous, delivering a blunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies.

Meloni had been a vociferous supporter of Trump, but she has criticised his decision to go to war with Iran, and on Monday, denounced his weekend criticism of Pope Leo as "unacceptable".

Trump responded in an interview with Corriere della Sera, saying Meloni was "very different from what I thought" and denouncing her for refusing to help re-open the Strait ‌of Hormuz, which ‌has been blocked by Iran.

"I'm shocked by ‌her. ⁠I thought she ⁠had courage. I was wrong," he is quoted as saying in the Italian-language article posted online.

The White House declined to comment on the reported quotes. Meloni's office also declined to comment.

The criticism marks a dramatic change in tone toward Meloni, who was the only European leader to attend the president's inauguration in 2025.

Only last month ⁠he told Corriere della Sera that Meloni was "a ‌great leader", but on Tuesday ‌he accused her of failing to back US efforts over energy security ‌and Iran, and said Italy wanted America "to do the job ‌for her."

Asked about her condemnation of his comments on Pope Leo, he said: "She is the one who is unacceptable, because she does not care whether Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow Italy up in ‌two minutes if it had the chance."

Meloni had hoped that her close relationship with the ⁠US president would ⁠strengthen her standing at home and abroad, but instead it risks becoming a political liability.

Some 66% of Italians now hold a negative view of the US leader and pollsters say Meloni's ties to the White House may have contributed to her defeat last month in a referendum on judicial reform.

The war in Iran has pushed up energy prices in Italy, which is heavily dependent on oil and gas imports.

"They (Italy) pay the highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz... They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open," Trump said.

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World

Macron: French Navy Intercepted Another Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Tanker

France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
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Macron: French Navy Intercepted Another Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Tanker

France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that his country's navy had intercepted an oil tanker as it transited near the coast of Sicily, in what he called his country's latest action against the 'shadow fleet' Russia uses to ship oil and gas and ⁠to skirt Western ⁠sanctions.

"This new action against the shadow fleet, conducted days after a similar operation by Britain, shows Europeans' determination," Macron said in ⁠a post on Instagram, adding that the interception took place on Tuesday.

"We will not let the shadow fleet evade sanctions and finance the Russian war effort," Reuters quoted Macron as saying.

Macron posted a video showing Marines descending from helicopters onto the ⁠Deliver.

⁠France has intercepted at least five tankers it says are part of Russia's shadow fleet, old vessels that Russia has relied on to ship oil and gas and to skirt Western sanctions.

Moscow has called such actions illegal.

World

Ukraine Drone Attacks Kill 5 in Russia, Crimea

FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
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Ukraine Drone Attacks Kill 5 in Russia, Crimea

FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS

Ukrainian drone strikes killed five people, including two children, in Russia and on the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula, in attacks that also triggered a fire at a major oil depot in the country's south, local officials said Thursday.

Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russia in recent months in retaliation for Moscow's near-daily barrages of drones and missiles throughout its five-year offensive, AFP reported.

Russia's defense ministry said it downed 269 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russia and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

In Crimea, which Ukraine is trying to cut-off from Russian logistics and supply routes, the Russia-appointed governor Sergey Aksyonov said: "Two people, including a child, were killed and two others wounded ... as a result of overnight enemy attacks.

Drone strikes also killed two people in the border Bryansk region -- a 23-year-old driver and 15-year-old girl -- and one in the Belgorod region, regional authorities said.

Kyiv insists that the Ukrainian army first and foremost targets military installations and energy infrastructure, in a bid to deprive the Kremlin's war chest of vital fossil fuel revenues.

In Russia's southern Krasnodar Krai region, debris from a drone strike triggered a fire at an oil depot, authorities said Thursday.

"Following the fall of UAV debris, a fire broke out at the Poltavskaya oil depot," Aleksandr Kharitonov, head of Krasnoarmeysk district in Krasnodar Krai, wrote on Russia's state-run Max platform.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 90 drones and an Iskander missile -- launched from Crimea -- at Ukraine overnight, adding that 83 of the drones had been shot down.

But Ukraine's state railway operator said a crew member was killed in a strike on a train in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

World

Iran Warns Against Hormuz Crossings Without Authorization

FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Iran Warns Against Hormuz Crossings Without Authorization

FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday warned against any crossings of the Strait of Hormuz without authorization, saying vessels not complying "will be dealt with.”

The future of the strait, a vital route for energy shipments that was blockaded by Iran during the war, is a key sticking point in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

Tehran has said it plans to impose what it calls maritime service fees, as opposed to tolls, while the United States argues it is an international waterway and therefore should not be charged.

"The only authorized route for passage through the Strait of Hormuz is the route announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military.

Any crossing without authorization is "unacceptable and extremely dangerous,” they warned in a statement.

According to AFP, they also denounced what they said was a new route through the waterway announced by "certain authorities.”

The statement did not elaborate but it appeared to be a response to an announcement overnight of a temporary corridor by Oman, which also borders the strait.