ROME—In early 2025, politicians from Europe’s nationalist right gathered in Madrid under the slogan “Make Europe Great Again.” They cited President Trump’s brand of conservatism as an inspiration and cast themselves as the continent’s best bridge to the White House.
“We, the nationals of Europe, are the only ones who can talk to the new Trump administration,” said France’s Marine Le Pen, who celebrated Trump’s election victory at the event with the likes of Italy’s Matteo Salvini and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Today, many of those politicians haven’t only given up on being a bridge to America; they are seeking to distance themselves from a U.S. president who is so unpopular in Europe that they see him as a political liability.
The extent of the rupture became more apparent in recent days as a public feud erupted between Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who had tried to position herself as Trump’s closest European ally.
Meloni, the only European leader to attend Trump’s 2025 inauguration, had worked hard to preserve the trans-Atlantic alliance despite Trump’s repeated attacks on Europe. She had stood by him through his threats to impose tariffs on European goods and seize Greenland from Denmark. Trump had reciprocated, calling her a “great leader.”
But when Trump told a reporter from an Italian morning TV show last week that Meloni had “begged” him for a photo opportunity at a summit of the Group of Seven leading nations in France, the public humiliation was too much to bear. Meloni responded with a video message that showed the feistiness she is known for domestically: “I and Italy never beg.”
The dispute was at once personal and political. European leaders have come to expect disparaging remarks from Trump, but this one was directed at someone who had invested perhaps more political capital than any other in nurturing her relationship with him. Her response reflected both her personal offense at the gibe and a new political reality in Europe: It doesn’t pay to be seen as close to Trump these days.
Trump is deeply unpopular with European voters. His approval ratings are now underwater even among the nationalist right, including among supporters of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party and Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK.
In one survey, British voters were asked to list three reasons why they wouldn’t support Reform. Some 37% listed Farage’s support for Trump—making it the top reason.
Le Pen and her political allies have distanced themselves from Trump as public opinion in France—including among her supporters—turned against him and his foreign ventures.
Support from Trump appeared to do little to buoy the prospects of Hungary’s Orban, another one of his top allies in Europe. Orban lost his bid for re-election as prime minister by a wide margin despite a visit by Vice President JD Vance to Hungary in the final days of the campaign.
For her part, Meloni had little to show for her close relationship with Trump. Italy’s products have been subject to tariffs and its economy has suffered fallout from the Iran war.
She is aligned with Trump on many issues, including opposition to immigration and what they see as woke ideology. Meloni initially drew her political support from the far right but she has moderated her positions over her years in office, a shift that helped boost her popularity. The approach has yielded one of the more stable governments in Europe in recent years.
But disagreements were bound to arise between parties in different countries that built their support around putting their national interests first, analysts say. The Iran war, which has disrupted global energy markets and damaged Europe’s economic prospects, has brought those diverging interests into sharp relief.
“For these parties, it was always going to be difficult to defend the interests of the U.S. over the interests of their own nation states,” said Lorenzo Castellani, a political analyst at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. “Everyone is fleeing from Trump—both because of what he says and because of the Iran war, which has neither strengthened his status at home nor abroad.”
Both Le Pen and Farage have questioned Trump’s judgment on the Iran war, calling it a mistake. While Trump and Farage have had a fairly close relationship in recent years, the U.K. politician this year has played down any links with the American president.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which long styled itself as the Trump administration’s closest partner in Germany, said the war wasn’t in Germany’s interest and had to stop. “Donald Trump started as a president of peace,” Tino Chrupalla, an AfD official, said in March. “In the end, Donald Trump will end as a president of war.”
Meloni strongly opposed the Iran war from the start, saying it was destabilizing for the Middle East and the wrong way to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Italy, which depends heavily on gas imports, was especially vulnerable to the economic fallout.
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly aired his frustration with European leaders over what he sees as their lack of support for the U.S. He has publicly raised the possibility of pulling out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the alliance that has been the bedrock of Western security since the end of World War II.
Trump has signaled to Europe’s political leaders that “in the long run, they are not going to be able to rely on the U.S. in the way they did,” said E.J. Dionne, an expert on American governance at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “If a Democrat or a pro-alliance Republican wins the next election, some of the relationship will be reconstructed. But I don’t think the alliance can ever be the same as it was.”
Trump expressed frustration over Italy’s refusal to allow the U.S. military to use an air base in Sicily for airstrikes in Iran, saying on Saturday that it caused “great logistical inconvenience” to U.S. military operations. Italy’s government said such operations require advance parliamentary approval.
Despite the tensions over the war, Meloni initially avoided criticizing Trump directly. That changed after the president attacked Pope Leo XIV over his condemnation of the war. Under pressure from Italy’s overwhelmingly Catholic population, Meloni came out in Leo’s defense, calling Trump’s insults “unacceptable.”
Still, when Trump and Meloni met at the G-7 summit, the two were seen speaking together on a sofa. She was caught on camera saying she and the U.S. president had never stopped being friends.
But the public spat that ensued told a very different story. After Meloni’s video message, Trump doubled down on his attack on Saturday in a social-media post. He claimed Meloni asked him “over and over for a picture” during the summit. “She wants to be friends again in order to get her ‘numbers up.’ No thanks!!!” Trump wrote.
Meloni’s response alluded both to her frustration over his behavior and a recognition of the liability he now represents to his one-time political allies in Europe.
“These constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless. As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped,” Meloni responded. She advised Trump to focus on his own approval ratings.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com
