A public row between Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and US President Donald Trump has prompted debate about how she’s seen among Italians, after Trump claimed that she had repeatedly asked him for a photo during the summit.
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According to Trump, Meloni “begged” for the picture in an effort to boost her ratings, as he claimed that she was not faring well in the eyes of voters.
“She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!),” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Meloni rejected the claim, calling it “senseless.”
“As for my popularity, being your friend has certainly not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you,” Meloni said, before suggesting the president should focus on his own approval ratings instead.
So what do the latest polling figures actually show? Essentially, they indicate that the picture is complicated.
Recent surveys suggest that Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party remains the country’s most popular political force. A YouTrend survey for Sky TG24 published in June put the party on 28.6% of voting intentions, more than seven points ahead of the centre-left Democratic Party on 21.5%.
However, available numbers also suggest her personal popularity is weaker, with a YouGov poll conducted in April finding that 35% of Italians viewed Meloni favourably, with 57% viewing her unfavourably.
A separate Ipsos survey published in February put her approval rating at 44%.
These figures are lower than in 2023, when Pew Research found that 57% of Italians had a favourable view of Meloni less than a year after she took office.
Although her personal popularity may have declined slightly from highs recorded when she first took office, there is little evidence that she is facing political collapse.
Meloni’s party continues to be ahead of its main rivals, and she is also personally ahead of several of her European counterparts. Italians seem to rank her more highly than French citizens do Emmanuel Macron or Germans do Chancellor Friedrich Merz, according to YouGov polling.
Relations between Trump and Meloni, previously seen as one of the president’s closest allies in Europe, have deteriorated in recent months following the economic fallout from the US-Israeli war in Iran and Meloni’s subsequent refusal to let the US aircraft bound for the Middle East use its air base in Sicily.
The pair also sparred over Pope Leo XIV, with Meloni defending the pontiff after Trump deemed him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.”
“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war,” Meloni said in response.
Misleading social media posts
The spat between Trump and Meloni also triggered a wave of social media posts coming out to back the Italian leader, with several users sharing footage showing her being hugged by supporters and cheered by a crowd.
Some claimed the video showed Italians welcoming her home after she stood up to Trump.
Although this footage is genuine, it has been shared online without context.
It was originally uploaded to Meloni’s own social media accounts after she attended the gathering of the Third Alpine Group of the Triveneto region, an annual reunion of Alpini veterans and volunteers from northeastern Italy.
The event was therefore not a gathering organised in response to the dispute with Trump, although Meloni did receive a warm reception from her supporters.
