Italy's foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has cancelled a trip to the US after President Donald Trump told Italian TV that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had "begged" him for a picture with her.
Meloni has said his comments were entirely "made-up".
The highly public exchange between the two leaders was an indication that their earlier close ties have frayed in the months since Trump's decision to go to war with Iran.
Trump and Meloni were seen in close conversation at the G7 summit at Évian-les-Bains in eastern France this week, and the Italian leader later told reporters their relationship was unchanged and there had been "no recriminations".
However, Trump has since given a phone interview with Italy's La7 TV channel in which he alleged: "She begged me to take a photo with her; I felt sorry for her."
The two leaders were filmed several times at Évian, including while they appeared engrossed in conversation on a small sofa, with Meloni smiling as they talked.
"She's probably happy I spoke to her," he said. La7 did not produce Trump's original words in English, but voiced them over in Italian.
Meloni reacted in total disbelief, saying she was "frankly stunned", in a brief address to her seven million followers on Instagram.
"I don't know why the US president behaves this way towards allies," she said, adding it was not the first time it had happened.
"I can only say it is regrettable he does not show the same determination towards the enemies of the West and towards the enemies of the US - [enemies] whose leaders he instead appears to be far more accommodating with."
"But there is one thing he needs to remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg."
The BBC has approached the White House for comment.
Meloni's evident shock at Trump's outburst comes after a series of incidents that have weakened what had begun as a close political relationship.
Elected in 2022, Meloni was the sole European leader to attend Trump's inauguration in January 2025 and was widely seen by her EU colleagues as a potential bridge-builder with the US president.
But Meloni has been outspoken in her opposition to the US war with Iran and in April Trump hit back with a phone interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera in which he said, "I thought she had courage, but I was wrong".
When Trump accused Pope Leo XIV of being "weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy", Meloni said his remarks were unacceptable.
Responding to Trump's latest interview, Italy's President Sergio Mattarella immediately phoned Meloni to offer his support, and figures from across the political spectrum in Italy sprang to her defence.
No-one had the right to speak to an Italian prime minister in such an arrogant tone, said Filippo Sensi, a senator on the left from the opposition Democratic Party.
Italy did not deserve such humiliation, said Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, who added that chasing favours with Washington should never come at the expense of national dignity and interest.
From Meloni's own Brothers of Italy party, Senate group leader Lucio Malan noted that Trump's words were part of a broader pattern of offensive remarks he had directed at various European leaders, and they were damaging above all to Trump's own image and authority.
Malan suggested that the video from the G7 in reality showed a very different dynamic to what Trump had described, and he suggested that what truly irritated the US president may have been Meloni's record of saying no to Washington when it became necessary.
Government ally Matteo Salvini from the League said simply: "Whoever attacks Giorgia, attacks all of us."
