President Joe Biden on Wednesday cancelled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response to devastating fires raging in California.

President Joe Biden has canceled a planned trip to Rome to meet with Pope Francis so that he can instead focus on federal response to the rapidly moving wildfires that are tearing through the Los Angeles area,

The US president was scheduled to leave for Italy after giving the eulogy for former president Jimmy Carter at his funeral in Washington on Thursday.