Trump ‘shocked’ after Italian PM Meloni calls pope’s criticism 'unacceptable'

US President Donald Trump lashed out at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after she defended Pope Leo XIV.

According to The Hill, Trump on Tuesday, April 14, told an Italian newspaper he was “shocked” by the leader’s criticism of his comments admonishing Pope Leo XIV.

Trump said in a phone interview with Corriere della Sera, “Do Italians like the fact that your prime minister isn’t giving us any help to get oil? Do people like her? I can’t imagine. I’m shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”

Trump’s criticism comes after Meloni hit the president on Monday over his recent attacks on the pope, calling the president’s comments “unacceptable.”

“I find President Trump’s words toward the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni, who leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, said in a statement.

Meloni has been considered to be one European leader that stood with Trump but like others around Europe, her country has not heeded Trump’s calls to help with opening the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he calls for peace and condemns every form of war,” she said.

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Trump said on Tuesday “it’s her who’s unacceptable,” referring to Meloni. “Because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if she had the chance.”

Meloni has visited the White House at least twice last year during Trump’s second term, once solo for a bilateral in the Oval Office and again last August as part of a contingent of European leaders meeting about Ukraine.