(Adnkronos) – Italy’s main private business lobby Confindustria will no longer attend a business forum in Miami next week after comments by United States president Donald Trump aired on Friday in a TV interview that disparaged prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Adnkronos learned from sources.
The Confindustria delegation’s shunning of the business forum on Monday follows foreign minister Antonio Tajani’s announcement that he was cancelling his trip to Miami to co-chair the forum with US secretary of state Marco Rubio due to Trump’s “offensive” remarks about Meloni.
In an interview with La7 television channel aired earlier on Friday, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo with her at the G7 summit held in Evian this week and said he “felt sorry” for her.
“She (Meloni) begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a photo with me so badly,” Trump told La7.
“I wouldn’t have taken it with her but I felt sorry for her,” Trump added.
Meloni wrote on Instagram that she was “stunned” by Trump’s claim, saying it was made up and underlined that she “never” begs and neither does Italy.
