Did Trump call Italian President “Mozzarella” and make ‘Ancient Rome’ gaffe? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

Social media messages claim that during a visit by the Italian President to the White house during October 2019, President Trump made a series of gaffes including calling the Italian President “Mozzarella” and claiming the US and Italy have been allies since ancient Rome.

FALSE

Many such messages have circulated along with images of a somewhat bewildered looking White House translator sat behind the US President.

While the images of the bewildered looking translator appear to be genuine (her various facial expressions are visible on video has Trump spoke during a meeting in the Oval Office) the claims that Trump referred to the Italian president as “Mozzarella” or that he claimed the US and Italy have been allies since Ancient Rome are either not based on any evidence or a possible misunderstanding of a genuine remark made by Trump.

Firstly, during all of the public appearances by Trump on the day the Italian President visited, we could find no instance of him referring to him as “Mozzarella”, and none of the claims on social media that he did have provided video proof of the supposed gaffe. Since there is no public recording and no other evidence provided, we have to rank the claim false. (All events including the Italian President were posted to YouTube by the White House, here, here and here.)


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The claim that Trump states that the US and Italy have been allies for thousands of years dating back to Ancient Rome stems from a remark during a joint press conference in the White House East Room (which can be seen in this video around the 38 second mark.) That remark is as follows –

The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years, to ancient Rome

Read properly, Trump’s remark states that it is a shared and political heritage that dates back thousands of years, not any specific relationship or alliance between Italy and the United States, which of course would be impossible since the US was founded as an independent nation in 1776, long after the demise of Ancient Rome.

While many insist that the remark is confusing or can be interpreted in a way that makes little sense, it would be disingenuous to interpret the remark to mean that Italy and the US have been allies for thousands of years, which many online messages claim he said. As such, we also rank this claim as false.

As for the confused looking translator in the Oval Office, we can only speculate on the cause of her curious expressions. She was not present when Trump made the Ancient Rome remark, nor did Trump refer to the Italian President as “Mozzarella” while she sat behind him. It’s possible she struggled with the US President’s speaking style, maybe she disagreed with the president’s remarks or perhaps she could not hear him all that well. We simply may never know.

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