Since the launch of Donald Trump's second administration, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni—who had emerged as the European leader closest to President Trump—has been distancing herself from the United States over the ongoing Iran war.
When Meloni visited the White House last year, she and President Trump built rapport by sharing common ground on immigration and other issues. She has kept closely aligned with Trump, to the point that she was the only sitting European leader to attend his second presidential inauguration.
Recently, however, she has begun to put some distance between herself and Washington, including by criticizing the United States over the Iran war. On the 11th (local time), Meloni told the Italian Parliament, "The crisis of the international system is deepening, and unilateral interventions outside international law are increasing," adding, "U.S. and Israeli involvement against the Iranian regime should be viewed in this context."
Meloni's critical stance on the U.S. strikes on Iran stems from considerable domestic backlash in Italy over the situation. A poll found that about two-thirds of Italians hold a negative view of the strikes on Iran.
Moreover, even before the war, critical perceptions of President Trump and his administration's policies had been spreading among Italians. When the United States said last month it would send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, protests broke out in opposition, reflecting this mood.
With a national referendum on judicial reform—seen as a "Meloni confidence vote"—approaching, Meloni cannot ignore public opinion. Her government is pursuing judicial reforms to separate the oversight systems for prosecutors and judges, which are currently supervised together by a single body, but there is talk locally that the reform plan could be voted down in the referendum.
In particular, regarding the strikes on Iran, a situation has arisen in which Meloni appears effectively sidelined by President Trump. According to the New York Times (NYT), some European leaders received perfunctory notification calls just before the strikes, but Italy received no advance notice at all. At the time, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto had to cut short a vacation in Dubai with his family and return urgently on a military aircraft.
As a result, voices within Italy are increasingly questioning the personal ties between President Trump and Prime Minister Meloni. Matteo Renzi, a former prime minister and centrist opposition leader, wrote on social media (SNS), "For months on every broadcast we heard that Meloni was a bridge between Trump and Europe, but unfortunately it was all fake news," adding, "It is truly embarrassing." For Meloni, who has claimed to have "a privileged relationship" with the United States, it is a loss of face.
Meloni now faces the difficult task of avoiding provoking President Trump while honoring defense cooperation commitments with Arab states in the Persian Gulf, and at the same time soothing domestic opinion opposed to the Iran war. Still, the fact that her approval rating remains around 44% is seen as a political cushion.
Lorenzo Kamel, a professor of international relations history at the University of Turin in Italy, said, "Italians do not like this war, but for now it still feels like something far away," while warning, "If the war drags on much longer and the economy is badly shaken, Meloni could face a significant political backlash."