Trump ally skips UNGA for first time — months after face-to-face with president gave way to bitter clash

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is not attending the United Nations General Assembly this week, an official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Meloni’s decision not to attend breaks with a roughly 15-year stretch in which an Italian prime minister took part in the U.N. General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, according to Associated Medias, although the 2020 gathering was held largely virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meloni said she will not attend the UNGA, citing a packed schedule after attending six summits in three and a half weeks and saying she had "several dossiers" to handle at home.

Meloni’s absence also means the two leaders will avoid another face-to-face encounter after recent international summits put their growing tensions on public display, despite a previously warm relationship.

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"We believe the United Nations the basic instrument for achieving peace everywhere. Indeed we want a stronger role United Nations, we are present at many initiatives and we have an Italian candidate at the helm of the FAO", Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said ahead of the summit, according to Italian outlet ANSA. "There is great attention from the Italian side."

Their spat escalated in June after Trump said Meloni had "begged" him to take a photo at the G7, months after tensions first surfaced publicly when Meloni opposed U.S. military action against Iran and called Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV "unacceptable."

The two leaders have long had a warmer relationship than Trump has shared with many other U.S. allies, with Meloni notably the only European leader to attend his 2025 presidential inauguration.

In July, Meloni and Trump feuded in the lead up to the NATO summit in Turkey after Trump posted "RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED," on Truth, alongside a photo of Meloni looking at him.

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"Trump's statements against Meloni speak for themselves," Tajani said in July while at a Sky TG24 event. "We are convinced that transatlantic relations go far beyond individual statements."

The exchange followed a June interview with Italy’s La7 after the G7, when Trump mocked Meloni over what he claimed was her eagerness to take 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 said at the time to La7 TV channel. "She's probably happy I talked to her. I didn't have to talk to her."

Meloni fired back: "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."

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"There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg," she added.

There have been looming tensions between the two leaders after Meloni distanced herself from the U.S. amid mounting domestic and political pressure over the widening Middle East conflict.

Trump also criticized Meloni for failing to assist the U.S. without letting U.S. forces use Italy's landing strips and runways, calling it "a great logistical inconvenience."

"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!)," he wrote in June.

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Italy remains a key U.S. security hub in Europe, hosting nearly 13,000 active-duty American service members as of December 2025, according to Defense Manpower Data Center figures, with personnel based in Vicenza, Aviano, Naples and Sicily.

A senior administration official highlighted President Trump’s meetings with other heads of state and engagement with Gulf partners on Iran when asked by Fox News Digital about Meloni’s absence from the conference.

Tajani is expected to speak at the conference on Wednesday.