Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will not attend this week’s United Nations General Assembly, an official confirmed to Fox News Digital, ending a roughly 15-year streak of Italian prime ministers taking part in the annual high-level debate. The 2020 session, held largely virtually because of the pandemic, is the one exception in that stretch.
Meloni has said the decision comes down to scheduling, not politics. She has attended six summits in three and a half weeks and says she has “several dossiers” to handle back home in Italy.
Still, the timing is notable. Meloni’s absence means she and President Trump will avoid another face-to-face meeting after a string of international summits exposed friction between two leaders who, until recently, had one of the warmer relationships between Trump and a European counterpart. Meloni was the only European leader to attend Trump’s 2025 inauguration.
A Relationship Under Strain
The tension became public earlier this year when Meloni opposed U.S. military action against Iran and called Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV “unacceptable.”
Things escalated further in July, ahead of the NATO summit in Turkey, when Trump posted “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED” on Truth Social alongside a photo of Meloni looking at him. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani responded at a Sky TG24 event, saying, “Trump’s statements against Meloni speak for themselves,” while adding that “transatlantic relations go far beyond individual statements.”
The dispute traces back to a June interview Trump gave to Italy’s La7 following the G7 summit, in which he claimed Meloni had been eager for a photo with him.
“She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her,” Trump told La7. “She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her.”
Meloni pushed back hard.
“I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence,” she said. “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
Iran, Bases, and Popularity
Trump also criticized Meloni over Italy’s unwillingness to let U.S. forces use its landing strips and runways, calling the situation “a great logistical inconvenience.”
In June, Trump wrote that Meloni “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!)”
Despite the friction, Italy remains a central piece of America’s military footprint in Europe. As of December 2025, nearly 13,000 active-duty U.S. service members were stationed in the country, spread across bases in Vicenza, Aviano, Naples and Sicily, according to Defense Manpower Data Center figures.
Ahead of the U.N. gathering, Tajani struck a more conciliatory tone, telling Italian outlet ANSA that Italy sees the United Nations as “the basic instrument for achieving peace everywhere” and wants “a stronger role” for the body, noting Italy currently holds an Italian candidate at the helm of the FAO.
A senior U.S. administration official, asked about Meloni’s absence, pointed instead to Trump’s meetings with other heads of state and his engagement with Gulf partners on Iran. Tajani is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday in Meloni’s place.
