By Gram Slattery and Angelo Amante
ANKARA/ROME, July 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a "nice person" but criticised her for failing to help in the conflict with Iran, his latest remarks in a diplomatic dispute that is straining bilateral ties.
Meloni was once seen as a close ally of Trump, but the relationship faltered last month when he told Italian TV channel La7 that she had "begged" him to take a photo with her at a G7 summit in France. She denied the claim and accused him of fabricating the story.
She had criticised him this year for lashing out at Pope Leo over his condemnation of the Iran war. That, in turn, prompted a blunt rebuke from the U.S. president, who denounced her for refusing to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said 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.
In March, Italy denied permission for U.S. military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before heading to the Middle East because Washington had not sought prior authorisation from the government in Rome.
The U.S. leader had been asked about a picture he posted on Truth Social at the weekend, showing Meloni looking up at him with the caption "RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED", a move that reignited the dispute with the Italian prime minister ahead of the NATO gathering in Ankara they will both attend.
SAY HELLO 'WITH A SMILE'
During the conflict with Iran, Trump lashed out at other European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz who also criticised the war.
Yet, Trump's reprimand was a painful blow for Meloni, who had initially tried to forge a close relationship with him leveraging their shared right-wing political outlook. She was the only European leader to attend his inauguration in 2025.
The Italian government chose not to respond to the latest attack on Truth Social, with ministers pledging to avoid fuelling tensions that could harm bilateral ties.
"Trump speaks for himself. We have a U.S. president who loves to provoke, especially on social media. We have decided to stop responding to these remarks," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told La Stampa newspaper on Tuesday.
Meloni's office declined to comment on how she would behave when meeting Trump in Ankara. A source close to her, who declined to be named, ruled out the possibility that she would snub Trump, saying she knew how to handle such situations and could instead greet him "with a smile".
(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Gram Slattery in Ankara; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Keith Weir)
