Oof, the whole conversation makes this worse. Trump himself changes the topic to Meloni, asks the interviewer what she thought of him, and then tells the selfie story. (My back-translation from the Italian.)
War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, green is blue.
I haven't checked whether all these are true, but I can say with certainty that right now a whole lot of Italy is pissed.
Lane Greene
Lane Greene
Lane Greene
"Recapping. In these months, the President of the United States Donald Trump has praised Putin, Kim Jong-un, Orbán, Netanyahu, Lukashenko, Xi Jinping.
And he has attacked: Pope Leo XIV, Meloni, Macron, Starmer, Merz, Sanchez, Carney, the European Union and NATO."
I haven't checked whether all these are true, but I can say with certainty that right now a whole lot of Italy is pissed.
Lane Greene
"Recapping. In these months, the President of the United States Donald Trump has praised Putin, Kim Jong-un, Orbán, Netanyahu, Lukashenko, Xi Jinping.
And he has attacked: Pope Leo XIV, Meloni, Macron, Starmer, Merz, Sanchez, Carney, the European Union and NATO."
Trump's story that Georgia Meloni "begged" him for a selfie—and Meloni's furious response ("I, and Italy, never beg")—is dominating every Italian news website. This is such a self-own.
The point of the column: Americans may use too much AC, but Europeans moralize and fret too much about it. The green buildout—and rising temperatures—means that even green-minded Europeans can have a little less guilt (in southern Europe) or scorn (in the north) about using it.
The word "Orwellian" is vastly overused, but it's hard to see a clearer application of "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." I think that is what is making this trivial story reverberate day after day.
