Meloni was once seen as one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, but in recent months she has become the target of attacks by the White House leader in media interviews and ​on social media.

“No, I absolutely don’t regret anything I’ve done,” Meloni ⁠said in Ankara, at the end of a NATO summit also attended ​by Trump, when asked whether she had second thoughts about the political capital ​she had invested in the US president.

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.

The Italian leader, who ‌was ⁠the only European head of government to attend Trump’s inauguration last year, declined to respond to Sunday’s social media post by Trump showing her looking up at him with the caption: “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED”.

“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,” she ​said.

Meloni acknowledged that “things are going the way we have seen” ​between ⁠her and Trump, but stressed that they still shared common ground on issues including immigration and opposition to what she described as “woke culture”.

At the NATO summit, Trump ⁠struck a ​more conciliatory tone, describing Meloni as “a nice person”, ​while renewing criticism of her for not doing more to support his military attacks on Iran, which ​are expected to resume.