Trump headlines CPAC as he marks one month as president published at 23:06 Greenwich Mean Time 22 February

23:04 GMT 22 February

She echoed many American conservative sentiments in her remarks.

"Our adversaries hope that President Trump will move away from us, but knowing him as a strong and effective leader I bet that those who hope for divisions will be proven wrong," Meloni said.

She also came to the defence of US Vice-President JD Vance, who was criticised by some for remarks he made last week arguing that Europe's biggest threat comes "from within".

Meloni blasted "elites" who were upset with Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference.

She claimed "American liberal leftism" was being replicated in Europe and said Vance was right to warn of a great threat to Europe in his Munich remarks.

"Vice President Vance was discussing something deeper: identity, democracy, freedom of speech," she said.

French far-right leader cancels speech, accusing Bannon of 'Nazi' gesture

22:58 GMT 22 February

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella cancelled a planned speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, after Donald Trump's former top adviser made a hand gesture on stage that Bardella and others likened to a Nazi salute.

Steve Bannon yelled "fight, fight, fight" before extending his right arm, fingers pointed and palm down, during his CPAC speech on Thursday evening.

Bardella, who leads France's National Rally party, was already in Washington and had been scheduled to speak at the event on Friday. He said in a statement that he was cancelling his appearance over what he called a "gesture referring to Nazi ideology".

Bannon denied the Nazi comparison and called the gesture a "wave", saying it was the "exact same wave" he did on stage at a speech seven years ago in France to Bardella's party.

"If he cancelled [the speech] over what the mainstream media said about the speech, he didn't listen to the speech. If that's true, he's unworthy to lead France. He's a boy, not a man," Bannon told the French news magazine Le Point.

Next topic up: Ukraine published at 20:46 Greenwich Mean Time 22 February

20:46 GMT 22 February

Trump now moves on to talking about another major topic of the week: Russia's war in Ukraine.

We're dealing with President Zelensky and we're dealing with President Putin, Trump tells the crowd.

He hits out at "stupid and incompetent" President Joe Biden for involving the US so heavily in Ukraine's defence against Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion.

Europe should contribute more money to aid Ukraine than the US, Trump says.

We should get back the money we gave them he says. "It's just not fair."

He says "I think we're close to a deal" to end the war, which he calls a "horrible situation".

"It would have never happened" if I were president, he says.

"We're working on that," he says. "I don’t like talking about it because we're in the middle of negotiations."

US officials met Russian officials - without Ukrainians - in Saudi Arabia in recent days to begin peace talks. The meetings came as Zelensky and Trump traded barbs, with Trump calling Zelensky a "dictator".

You can read more about the history of Trump and Zelensky's relationship here.

published at 20:46 Greenwich Mean Time 22 February

20:46 GMT 22 February

Trump tells the CPAC crowd that government bureaucrats who don't report to work in person are "fired".

He says that if he didn't have to work, he'd be focused on improving his golf game.

One of the reasons people are leaving the federal government is because they don't want to work in person, Trump claims.

Thousands of government employees at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as other agencies, have been fired in recent weeks.

Musk - who is running Trump's efforts to cut government staffing - posted on social media as Trump was speaking saying all federal employees will receive an email "requesting to understand what they got done last week".

"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

You can read more about what Trump did in this week, including the firings, here .

He claims "nobody ever knows her last name" and as he mispronounces Harris's first name.