Speaking to reporters at the NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump described Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a “nice person” while directly blaming her for refusing to assist Washington during the conflict with Iran. “She refused to get involved, so it soured my relationship with her a little bit,” Trump said, adding that he believed she “made a mistake.” The remarks, delivered hours before both leaders were due to attend alliance events, marked the latest public airing of a diplomatic rift that has intensified since March, when Rome denied US military aircraft permission to land at Sicily’s Sigonella air base en route to the Middle East, citing a lack of prior authorisation.

Viewed from Rome, the dispute is rooted in a series of personal exchanges that Italian officials have sought to contain. The Italian government declined to respond to Trump’s latest comments, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani telling La Stampa that “Trump speaks for himself” and that Rome had “decided to stop responding to these remarks.” A source close to Meloni, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prime minister would not snub Trump and could instead greet him “with a smile.” The strategy, according to European diplomats, reflects a calculation that bilateral ties—underpinned by the presence of nearly 13,000 US troops across six Italian bases—should not be jeopardised by what one official described as a pattern of provocative social media posts.

The personal friction escalated in June when Trump claimed on Italian television that Meloni had “begged” him for a photograph at the G7 summit in France, an assertion she denied. Tensions deepened after Meloni criticised Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo over the pontiff’s condemnation of the Iran war, and Trump subsequently rebuked her for not helping to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Over the weekend, Trump posted a photograph of Meloni looking up at him on Truth Social with the caption “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED,” a move that reignited the dispute ahead of the Ankara gathering. From Washington’s perspective, the administration has framed Italy’s stance as a failure to reciprocate US security commitments, with Trump writing that Meloni was “doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States.”

Analysts in European capitals note that the spat exposes wider policy divergences within the alliance over the Middle East, even as NATO seeks to project unity. While Meloni was the only European leader to attend Trump’s 2025 inauguration, her government has since distanced itself from US military operations against Iran, reflecting domestic political pressure and a broader European unease with the conflict’s escalation. No bilateral meeting between the two leaders is scheduled in Ankara, but they are expected to encounter each other at the leaders’ dinner, plenary sessions, and other summit events. The Italian government’s decision to avoid further public confrontation suggests that, for now, Rome will pursue a course of diplomatic restraint while the alliance’s formal agenda proceeds.