President Donald Trump is heading into the fifth day of his second term in office, striving to remake the traditional boundaries of Washington by asserting unprecedented executive power.
The president is also heading to western North Carolina and Los Angeles, using the first trip of his second administration to tour areas where .
Here's the latest:
Trump targets California water policy as he prepares to tour LA fire damage
As President Donald Trump prepares to tour wildfire damage in California, he鈥檚 zeroing in on one of his frequent targets for criticism: State water policy.
Since the fires broke out Jan. 7, Trump has used social media and interviews to accuse the state of sending too much water to the Pacific Ocean instead of south toward Los Angeles and highlighted how some in the early hours of the firefight in Pacific Palisades.
In the first hours of his second term, Trump to draft plans to route more water to the crop-rich Central Valley and densely populated cities in the southern part of the state. Two days later to withhold federal disaster aid unless California leaders change the state鈥檚 approach on water.
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Both Hurricane Helene and Los Angeles wildfires were disasters spurred by extreme weather
And it鈥檚 weather that was forecast several days in advance and have a connection to human-caused climate change.
In Helene鈥檚 case, a study by international climate scientists at World Weather Attribution found that climate change . Numerous studies have shown hurricanes are because of global warming. Large outbursts of rain before Helen hit already had saturated the ground and because of climate change, scientists say.
In the wildfires, 鈥 during California鈥檚 normal wet season 鈥 which is likely connected to climate change made conditions especially vulnerable to fire when Santa Ana winds of 100 mph started, fire and weather scientists at the American Meteorological Society conference told The Associated Press.
鈥淭his is just breaking our comfort zone of what is supposed to be normal. And part of that has to do with the fact that we鈥檙e having extreme weather and we don鈥檛 want to hear that this is the new normal,鈥 said University of Oregon researcher Amanda Stasiewicz. 鈥淲e are sick of that narrative, but it is part of our reality now between the hurricanes,鈥欌 unusual tornadoes and fires.
President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have blamed a fish, , for not enough water in reservoirs. But the , hundreds of miles away, a reservoir was out of commission because of repairs, not endangered species, and the fires were so big and demand for water was so high, nothing could have worked, several scientists said.
No small stairs to Air Force One
Trump was climbing aboard Air Force One for the first trip of his second administration, using full-sized stairs from the tarmac to the plane.
His predecessor, Joe Biden, often used a small set of stairs that took him into the belly of the plane.
Trump was using a full set of stairs to reach the front of the aircraft鈥檚 cabin as he prepared to fly Friday to North Carolina, then Los Angeles, then Las Vegas.
What to know about the ruling blocking Trump鈥檚 order on birthright citizenship
President Donald Trump鈥檚 executive order to the children of parents living in the country illegally has faced the first of what will be many legal tests. It didn鈥檛 fare well.
A Justice Department lawyer had barely started making his arguments in a Seattle courtroom Thursday when U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour began blistering him with questions, calling the executive order Coughenour went on to temporarily block it pending further arguments.
The ruling, a temporary restraining orde, blocks the administration from enforcing or implementing Trump鈥檚 order nationally for the next 14 days. Over the next two weeks, the sides will submit further briefings on the legal merits of the executive order.
鈻 Here鈥檚 what to know about the pending
Who鈥檚 the guy handing Trump those binders of executive orders? Meet Will Scharf
has been a prominent part of the executive order signing tableau, standing at Trump鈥檚 side and teeing up the leather-bound folders, one by one, for the president.
Scharf doesn鈥檛 just act the straight man as Trump talks up his orders, cracks jokes and fields questions from reporters. He also plays a key role in the White House, overseeing the flow of information and business coming to and from the president.
Here鈥檚 a few things to know about the staff secretary:
1. The role has traditionally involved managing the papers that cross the president鈥檚 desk. It serves almost as air traffic control for the West Wing 鈥 tracking the drafting and approval of memos and statements as they work their way to the president鈥檚 desk and then out to the world.
2. Scharf was a member of Trump鈥檚 legal team before joining the new administration and was one of the president鈥檚 lawyers in the brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
3. Scharf ran unsuccessfully for Missouri attorney general in 2024, losing to incumbent Andrew Bailey. His campaign included in which the mild-mannered lawyer appears to use a grenade launcher to fire on a pile of boxes that were labeled to look like they contained legal documents related to Trump鈥檚 criminal cases.
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What Americans think about Trump and Musk鈥檚 plans for the federal government: AP-NORC poll
Americans see the federal government as rife with corruption, inefficiency and red tape 鈥 but they鈥檙e less sure about whether Elon Musk is the right person to fix it.
A new poll from shows that only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults strongly or somewhat approve of President Trump鈥檚 creation of an advisory body on government efficiency, which Musk is helming. About 4 in 10 disapprove, while the rest were neutral or didn鈥檛 know enough to say. (The poll was conducted before he would no longer be involved in the group.)
Trump will visit disaster zones in North Carolina and California on the first trip of second term
President is heading to western North Carolina and Los Angeles on Friday, using the first trip of his second administration to tour areas where politics has clouded the response to deadly disasters.
The Republican president has criticized former President Joe Biden for in North Carolina, and he鈥檚 showered disdain on California leaders for water policies that worsened the recent blazes.
the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some of his conservative allies have proposed reducing how much the agency reimburses states for handling floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other calamities.
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