Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has publicly accused Donald Trump of fabricating a story about a photograph of the two leaders. The row, which erupted during a joint press conference in Rome, has sent shockwaves through Whitehall. “That photo never happened,” Meloni said, her voice flat. “It is made up.”
Trump had earlier claimed the pair posed for a picture at a G7 summit. No evidence exists. The Italian premier didn’t mince words. “Facts matter. Trust matters.”
The remark landed like a grenade in the transatlantic relationship. Number 10 sources admit they were blindsided. “We were not warned,” a Downing Street aide told me. “This is new territory.”
For Britain, the timing is brutal. The UK has been walking a tightrope between Washington and Brussels since Brexit. Now it risks being crushed by falling masonry. A senior Foreign Office official admitted: “We are the meat in the sandwich. No one wants to choose, but we may have to.”
Meloni, a fellow right-winger often seen as a natural ally of Trump, has now broken ranks. Her indictment of the former president carries weight. “She is no fool,” said a former UK ambassador to Italy. “She knows exactly what she is doing. This is about Italian sovereignty and her own domestic standing.”
In Westminster, the reaction is cautious. Labour’s shadow foreign secretary called it “deeply concerning” and urged the government to “protect our alliances”. Tory MPs are split. The eurosceptic wing blames the EU for not backing Meloni enough. The One Nation group fears a permanent rupture.
I hear from a well-placed source that the British ambassador in Rome has been instructed to “express solidarity” but avoid direct criticism of Trump. It is a classic fudge. But will it hold? The White House has not commented. Trump surrogates are dismissing the row as “tempest in a teacup”.
Yet this is no storm in a teacup. This is a crisis of credibility. If the US cannot be trusted on a simple photograph, what about intelligence? What about trade deals? One veteran diplomat summed it up: “The special relationship is not special. It is transactional. And right now, the price of entry is rising.”
Downing Street hopes the row will blow over. But Meloni is not backing down. “I have the photograph. It does not exist,” she said. The message is clear: Italy will not be gaslit.
For Keir Starmer, the calculation is brutal. He needs US support on Ukraine, on China, on NATO. But he cannot afford to alienate European allies. “We are trying to have our cake and eat it,” a Labour insider admitted. “It gets harder every day.”
Watch this space. This story is not going away. The photograph may be mythical, but the fallout is real.
