Air Force One has been grounded a second time by the Los Angeles wildfires, as President Biden cancels his last foreign trip to focus on the deadly inferno.
Biden was planning to leave the country Thursday to meet the Pope, but the president scrapped his plans as the blaze continued to rage in Los Angeles County.
The fires erupted Tuesday as high winds and dry conditions turned Los Angeles into a tinderbox - and whole neighborhoods into scenes of Biblical destruction.
The dangerous winds also caused Biden, who was in the area, to cancel a planned speech announcing a pair of national monuments near Joshua Tree National Park.
The windstorm also kept Biden's plane on the ground for a day, delaying his departure back to Washington D.C., where he gave a eulogy at Jimmy Carter's funeral on Thursday.
Before leaving California, Biden attended a briefing on the wildfires where he was criticized for making some flippant comments, including sharing the "good news" that he had become a great-grandfather.
"We're prepared to do anything and everything as long as it takes to contain these fires and help reconstruct, make sure that we can get back to normal," Biden said.
Biden declared a major disaster declaration Wednesday on his way back to the nation's capital, unlocking federal money for the recovery effort.
The Catholic president was planning to visit Rome to meet with Pope Francis on a three-day tour of Italy, but those plans were scuttled.
“After returning this evening from Los Angeles, where earlier today he had met with police, fire and emergency personnel fighting the historic fires raging in the area and approved a Major Disaster declaration for California, President Biden made the decision to cancel his upcoming trip to Italy to remain focused on directing the full federal response in the days ahead,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The wildfires are already considered the most expensive in American history with an estimated cost of up to $150 billion.
After days of making little progress, firefighters had started to contain the two largest and most destructive fires - the Palisades fire and Eaton fire - as of Friday.
At least 10 people have died, and thousands of structures have been destroyed.
Biden has blamed the devastation on climate change, while President-elect Trump has targeted poor leadership from Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D).
