Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is one of just a handful of world leaders to have been invited to Mar-a-Lago since his election victory last November — but whether she can be Europe's "Trump whisperer" is more complicated.

And while many extreme-right politicians in Europe have wavered in their support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, Meloni has offered fulsome backing for Kyiv – even convincing her fellow rightwinger, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, to agree to a €50bn aid package to the war-torn country.

The Italian prime minister’s apparent closeness with the US president-elect could help avert a looming trade war.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday said she doesn’t believe President-elect Trump has a plan to purchase Greenland or acquire it through military force. “I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,