Meloni Gambles on Cozying Up to Musk and Trump

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

With less than two weeks to go before Donald Trump returns to the White House, many EU officials are still struggling to open channels of communication to the incoming administration. Not Giorgia Meloni. Italy’s prime minister has an inside track to Trump thanks to Elon Musk, which she put to use over the weekend by visiting the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago. Meloni is well placed to be Europe’s point person to the US, but that position is loaded with risk — especially given the unpredictable personalities involved. As the world’s richest man, Musk continues to rock European politics by backing far-right parties in the UK and Germany — and sitting for an interview with Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel on X, which the European Commission will watch closely — Meloni must be careful not to get burned.