Ankara, Türkiye. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she did not regret seeking close ties with US President Donald Trump, despite a series of public disputes that have strained relations between the two leaders.
Speaking after a Nato summit in Ankara, Meloni said her engagement with Trump reflected her broader commitment to Western unity.
Political ties
Meloni, once regarded as one of Trump’s closest European allies, has faced criticism from the US president in media interviews and social media posts in recent months.
“No, I absolutely don’t regret anything I’ve done,” she said when asked whether she had second thoughts about the political capital invested in her relationship with Trump.
“I made that political investment because I believe in the unity of the West. It’s not a strategy I adopted with Trump’s arrival, but one I have pursued with all my counterparts,” Meloni said.
Recent disagreements
Trump’s first public criticism of Meloni came in April after she rebuked him for attacking Pope Leo over the pontiff’s condemnation of the Iran war.
In March, Italy denied permission for US military aircraft bound for the Middle East to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily.
Meloni, the only European head of government to attend Trump’s inauguration last year, did not respond to a social media post by Trump on Sunday showing her looking up at him with the caption: “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED”.
Shared positions
Meloni acknowledged that relations between the two leaders had developed as seen publicly, but said they continued to share common ground on immigration and opposition to what she described as “woke culture”.
At the Nato summit, Trump adopted a more conciliatory tone, describing Meloni as “a nice person” while again criticising her for not doing more to support his military attacks on Iran, which are expected to resume.
