ANKARA (AFP) – US President Donald Trump appeared to have turned the page on a diplomatic row with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Tuesday as he landed in Ankara for a key Nato summit._x000D_
_x000D_
The pair fell out late last month after Trump claimed in remarks to an Italian TV channel that Meloni had “begged” him for a photo together at the G7 summit and he only agreed because he “felt sorry for her”._x000D_
_x000D_
Meloni angrily denied the claim, calling it “made up”, prompting Trump to double down, with his remarks opening an unusually personal rift with one of Europe’s most prominent right-wing leaders._x000D_
_x000D_
The spat prompted an undiplomatic back-and-forth which dragged on until Sunday when he published a doctored image on his Truth Social platform showing Meloni looking at him as if adoringly in a post accompanied by the words: “Restraining Order Needed”._x000D_
_x000D_
But on Tuesday, he appeared to be taking a more conciliatory tone._x000D_
_x000D_
“I think she’s a nice person, actually,” he said at a joint press conference with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan._x000D_
_x000D_
“We had a bad relationship, folks. It became a little bad because she refused to help us… She refused to get involved with the Hormuz Strait,” he said, reiterating his disappointment over Europe’s reluctance to play a role in the US-Israeli war on Iran._x000D_
_x000D_
“I like her, I think she’s a nice person actually, but I think she made a mistake.. she just wasn’t there for us and I wasn’t happy about that,” he said._x000D_
_x000D_
Trump has been highly critical of European NATO countries ahead of the Ankara meeting, with allies seeking to showcase growing defence spending in the hope of placating him.
