Giorgia Meloni’s problem from hell: Donald Trump

VATICAN CITY — Donald Trump put Giorgia Meloni in another tight spot on Monday, but this time she hit back.

The Italian prime minister and longtime Trump ally issued her first direct criticism of the U.S. president since he was reelected in 2024, in an attempt to keep her traditionally Catholic voter base on side.

The American leader over the weekend attacked Pope Leo XIV — who has emerged as a forceful moral critic of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, denouncing it as senseless and urging peace — bringing months of simmering tensions between the White House and the pontiff into the open.

“I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni said in a statement on Monday. “The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and proper that he call for peace and condemn all forms of war.”

Trump’s outburst has left Italian right-wing politicians under pressure to defend the Holy Father, given that their voters straddle nationalist conservatism and a strong attachment to Catholic tradition. Deputy Prime Minister and far-right League leader Matteo Salvini — a longtime supporter of Trump — was particularly vocal on Monday, telling local TV station Telelombardia that “if anyone is working hard on the issue of peace and resolving the conflict, it’s Pope Leo.”

“Attacking the Pope, a symbol of peace and spiritual guide for billions of Catholics, doesn’t seem like a useful or intelligent thing to do,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who criticised the Pope over the weekend, looks through an Oval Office window at the White House in Washington on April 13. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Meloni was initially more cautious, caught between loyalty to Trump on the global political stage and deference to a religious leader with moral authority among conservative voters as she looks toward an election in 2027. But she was forced to take a stand as pressure from the public and criticism from the opposition mounted on Monday.

Five Star Movement President Giuseppe Conte condemned Trump’s “unspeakable” attacks on Facebook and mocked Meloni for refusing to take a clear position despite her self-professed Christian identity, recalling her stance on the Iran war as “neither condemn nor support.”

Carlo Calenda, leader of the opposition centrist party Azione, called the prime minister’s failure to defend the Pope “embarrassing.” He said it had exposed Meloni’s political weakness and branded the prime minister as subservient to Trump while claiming the relationship has brought no benefits to Italy.

“The government has not yet understood that the pro-Russian pro-Trump right has become toxic and is destined to lose,” Calenda told POLITICO.

Trump has been a dominant force shaping the tone and direction of global right-wing politics for over a decade. But since the war in Iran his perceived influence has become increasingly toxic.

Meloni’s allies acknowledge that the relationship with the U.S. president and the Iran war played a decisive role in the defeat of her referendum on constitutional reforms last month, while Viktor Orbán suffered a landslide loss in Hungary despite backing from the Trump administration.

In a speech to parliament last week the Italian prime minister attempted to reset her premiership by distancing herself from the American leader, listing instances where she claimed to have disagreed with him, from Greenland to tariffs and Iran. In practice, however, she has often aligned with Trump’s diplomatic initiatives and even backed him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Leo Goretti, of the Italian Institute for International Affairs, told POLITICO the political cost for Meloni may be hard to contain. “Meloni’s strategy is part of a pattern of hedging between Trump and Italian public opinion, which is increasingly dissatisfied with the government’s perceived closeness to the Trump administration,” he said.

Italy is already feeling the economic effects of Trump’s policies, and his attack on the Pope — “a symbol of Italian culture and identity, untouchable for most Italians,” as Goretti put it — will only intensify scrutiny of her alignment with Washington.

“This is a very difficult moment for the government, and there is no way it comes out of this unscathed in the eyes of public opinion,” he said.

And with the war in Iran shrinking the space for ambiguity and making Meloni’s balancing act far more precarious, the Italian leader was finally forced to draw a line on Monday.

It may prove too little, too late.