Claim:
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump once said the U.S. and Italy have been allies since ancient Rome.
Read More:-Tesla Stock vs. Microsoft Stock: Billionaire Philippe Laffont Is Buying One and Selling the Other
Rating:
In mid-December 2024, a claim spread on social media that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump once said the U.S. and Italy have been allies since ancient Rome.
Read More:-US Congress has two days to avert shutdown after Trump rejects spending bill
“Trump said that the United States and Italy have been allies since the time of Ancient Rome. The translator’s reaction is priceless,” one X post (archived), with over 12.4 million views as of this writing, read.
Trump’s alleged comments sparked mixed reactions on social media.
“This sounds outrageous. Please post the whole quote so I know how angry to be about it,” one X user wrote, while another countered, “You shouldn’t be mad about it at all. What he said was perfectly reasonable.” Another user speculated: “I guess he wanted to say ancient Greece, right? Right?”
Read More:-Google’s new AI tool uses image prompts instead of text
The claim was spread by numerous X accounts, and circulated on social media platforms including LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
In short, Trump did not claim that the United States and Italy have been allies since ancient Rome. He remarked that the two countries have a “shared cultural and political heritage” dating back back thousands of years. As such, we have rated this claim as false.
We previously debunked this rumor back in 2019, highlighting that such an assertion would obviously be incorrect, as the United States was not founded as an independent nation until 1776, and Italy did not achieve unification until the 19th century, becoming a republic only in the 1940s.
Context of Trump’s Remarks
The claim originated from a speech Trump gave during a joint press conference with Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Oct. 16, 2019. During the event, Trump made the following statement: “The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years, to ancient Rome.”
Read More:-5 family members found dead at Utah home and 17-year-old hospitalized with gunshot wound
Right after that, Trump stated: “Over the centuries the Italian people have blessed our civilization with magnificent work of art, science, philosophy, architecture, music.” He continued: “On Monday we pay tribute to the Italian explorer who led a voyage of discovery to the New World, a gentleman known as Christopher Columbus. And to me it will always be called Columbus Day. Some people don’t like that, I do.”
Therefore, Trump stated that the United States and Italy share a political and cultural heritage dating back thousands of years, but did not claim they had been allied for that long. Trump’s use of the phrase “dating back thousands of years” seems to have caused confusion, leading some to misinterpret his remarks.
The influence of the Roman Republic on the formation and principles of the American Republic is well-documented, making Trump’s point historically accurate.
Read More:-Trump says he’ll end daylight saving time: Here are the winners and losers if he does
Viral Pics of Italian Interpreter
Moreover, the images shared in posts spreading the false claim, allegedly showing “the translator’s reaction,” were not taken during Trump’s misinterpreted comments about Italy. Instead, they were captured that same day in a different location — at the Oval Office of the White House.
For instance, the first photo appears to be a screenshot from the video titled “OVAL OFFICE: President Trump FULL Meeting With Italian President” shared on Oct. 16, 2019, by LiveNOW from FOX YouTube channel:
Read More:-Oil tanker ‘splits in half’ after ship runs aground in stormy weather
Below you can see a photograph of the scene we accessed via Getty Images:
(Getty Images)
Its description read:
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 16: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with President Sergio Mattarella of Italy in the Oval Office of the White House October 16, 2019 in Washington, DC. President Trump is holding talks with President Mattarella on bilateral issues including “common security challenges and shared economic prosperity.” (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Read More:-US President Trump confirms Bitcoin reserve plans as Russia hints at crypto cold war
Shortly after the event, Mattarella’s interpreter, Elisabetta Savigni Ullmann, sparked controversy with many social media users speculating about her expressions
