Following a recent public spat with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called the Italian leader a “nice person.” The shift in tone follows a brief period of tension sparked by Trump’s claims that Meloni had “begged” him for a photograph during the G7 summit in Evian, France.
The recent remarks also follow Trump’s Truth Social post on Sunday, in which he shared a photograph with Meloni and captioned it, “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”
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Trump calls Meloni a ‘nice person’
While he praised Meloni on Tuesday, Trump also criticised the Italian PM for not helping with the recent conflict in Iran. The US President also acknowledged that his relationship with Meloni “became a little bad because she refused to help us” with Iran.
“She refused to get involved, so it soured my relationship with her a little bit. But I like her. I think she’s a nice person, actually. But I think she made a mistake,” Trump told reporters in Turkey, where he was attending a NATO summit, as per Reuters.
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Rome denied permission for US military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily in March before they went to the Middle East. This was reportedly because Washington had not sought prior authorisation from the Italian government.
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Trump-Meloni tensions
The ties between the two leaders faltered when Trump told Italian TV channel La7 last month that she had “begged” him to take a photo with her at a G7 summit in France.
After Trump’s photo-op claim, Meloni rejected the allegations. Moreover, the claims prompted Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to cancel a planned visit to the US.
The public disagreement between Trump and Meloni had marked a sharp shift in relations between the two leaders.
Despite the recent exchanges, Italy remains a key US ally within NATO.
