US President Joe Biden cancelled a visit to Pope Francis, his last foreign trip in office, as wildfires continued to rage in Los Angeles.
The White House announced the cancellation on Wednesday after Biden returned from Los Angeles, where severe fires disrupted his plans to open two new national monuments, killing at least five people. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated:
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.
Biden decided to devote three days of his penultimate week in office to flying to Rome for a private audience with the Pope. The conversation would allow him to accept the end of his long political career, two aides said on condition of anonymity.
When the president returned to Washington on Wednesday night, fires had spread across Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States. Earlier, Biden announced the signing of a sweeping federal disaster response order.
