The full Senate is now voting on whether to confirm Trump's defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.

While Republicans hold a majority in the 100-member chamber, they can only lose three votes. Already Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins have indicated they will vote against his appointment.

Vice President JD Vance is standing ready to place a tie-breaking vote if needed.

As we told you earlier, Hegseth and his family are also at the US Capitol to watch the vote.

Gary O'Donoghue
Senior North America correspondent, reporting from Los Angeles

If everything was cordial between Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump at the airport, it wasn’t so pleasant when the president sat down with city administrators and local residents.

A number of those affected by the fire said they’d been told they couldn’t start rebuilding for 18 months. Donald Trump said they should be able to start clearing their plots tonight and all necessary permits should be waived.

Democratic Mayor Karen Bass disputed it would take that long. After Bass said people should be able to get back to their homes in a week, the president hit back saying he believed that was a long time.

He told a round table session that California had to adopt “common sense policies” and while he said he was “opening the coffers”, it’s still an open question whether he’ll make changes to state laws a prerequisite for approving the money.

In a lengthy session, the president also reiterated his attacks on Fema (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for its bureaucracy, and attacked environmentalists whom he suggested held their beliefs to make themselves “feel good”.

The President leaves California with the big questions still unanswered: will the federal government withhold funding from the state and will Fema survive this administration?

Image source, CBS

While Trump continues to speak with California officials at a roundtable, across the country in Washington DC senators are gathering to vote on defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.

The former Fox News host has just arrived at the Capitol with his family to watch the vote.

It's slightly unusual because nominees don't usually attend their confirmation vote.

We also understand Vice-President JD Vance is on the Hill. He can vote to break a tie, if needed.

After a half an hour of broad agreement and niceties, President Donald Trump and LA Mayor Karen Bass have now started to bicker.

Trump and Bass are on the same page when it came to reducing red tape to help people rebuild their homes.

But then the mayor fields a question about allowing homeowners to clear out debris.

“We want you to be safe, and we want you to be back in your homes immediately,” she says.

“But people are willing to clean out their own debris,” Trump responds. “You should let them do it. By the time you hire contractors, it’s going to be two years.”

“They can do that,” Bass says, and notes that people would be allowed to return to their properties in about “a week”.

“A week is actually a long time, the way I look at it,” Trump says.

Trump is speaking with California officials and leaders right now at a roundtable in Los Angeles.

He's just announced that he will sign an executive order opening the water pumps from north to south California.

"We want to get that water pouring down here as quickly as possible," he said, adding, "you're talking about unlimited water coming up from the Pacific Northwest, even coming from parts of Canada".

Trump has long pushed for moving the water from the north of the state to the south. He was urging that in the past to help the state's agricultural producers.

When he tried to do that in 2020, he face a legal challenge because of concerns about endangered species it could impact.

Earlier today, BBC News asked Greg Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, if moving water from northern California into the southland would have helped with either the Pacific Palisades or Eaton fires.

"The short answer is no, absolutely not," he says.

"Of course every marginal bit of water helps with firefighting, but water supply is one part of firefighting... You need not just more water quantity, but the hyperlocal infrastructure to hold it near fires."

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump is currently talking to local officials in California, and for the event he's put on a black-and-gold "Make America Great Again" hat.

Those happen to be the colours of the Proud Boys, whose former leader gave a press conference earlier today after getting a pardon for his Capitol riot. A similar-looking hat was on the table in front of Enrique Tarrio as he spoke to reporters.

When Trump wore the black-and-gold hat before the election, it prompted speculation that he was sending a signal to the far-right group.

Of course, it could just be a coincidence - Trump has never said one way or the other. But it's sure to spark some discussion aside from today's disaster-related events.

Gary O'Donoghue
Senior North America correspondent, reporting from Los Angeles

As the president toured the devastation of the Palisades, west of Los Angeles, I met two people returning to the remains of their rental home right on the beach in Malibu.

Brian and Sarah were out of town on the night the fire started, and for more than a day, friends driving by were sending them pictures of their home that was still standing.

But then, it went, like so many other homes around here.

To add to their pain, Sarah's parents lost their home in the Palisades fire. Her 85-year-old father, who has Parkinsons, had to find temporary accommodation.

Brian is non-commital when asked about the president's visit - like most people here, he and Sarah are focused not on the politics but on how to shape a new life.

More now on the news conference Trump’s press secretary held aboard the president’s plane on the way to California.

Karoline Leavitt said there would be no conditions on federal emergency aid to rebuild North Carolina, which was hit by a devastating hurricane last year.

However she held out the possibility of recovery funds for California being contingent on reforms, noting that Trump said “California has to address the water issue in their state".

Trump has also mentioned abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and signed an executive order to examine the department.

“We’re thinking about it at this point in time,” Leavitt said.

Image source, Getty Images

President Trump and the First Lady are in the Pacific Palisades, meeting with locals and first responders at one of the areas ravaged by wildfire.

Missing from his entourage is California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Earlier, the White House told us that Newsom had got on the Marine One helicopter with the president.

But he did not, and instead stayed behind at the airfield.

President Trump has just issued another executive order, designed to prevent US taxes from being used to pay for abortions.

It’s a measure known as the Hyde Amendment, and it first came into effect in 1980, although it has been modified many times since.

Joe Biden tried but failed to remove the law, yet Trump’s executive order claims that previous administration largely ignored it.

The law mostly affects lower-income women on the state-funded Medicaid programme, as well as women in the military, federal employees and others. There are exceptions to protect the life of the mother and for cases involving rape and incest.

Trump’s Supreme Court picks removed a decades-long blanket right to abortion, and he’s said that abortion policy should be set by individual US states.

But anti-abortion activists are a part of his base and the president recorded a message played out at the anti-abortion March for Life earlier today.

Like many of his other executive orders, this one is sure to be challenged in court, by pro-choice groups.

Iona Hampson
Reporting from Los Angeles

Earlier, we made our way through the evacuation zone to Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway, where oceanfront homes have turned to rubble. The smell of the ocean mixes with the smell of charred wood.

Authorities have been working around these homes to search for biohazards and try to prevent the impact of an imminent storm this weekend.

To some extent, rain would be good. But too much rain could result in mudslides. Concrete "K" rails are being put in place to mitigate.

Just before the Palisades evacuation zone, there are sandwich boards telling approaching drivers that they should not drink the tap water in the zone.

Some people here are trying to pick up some form of normality. For others, life is forever changed with another possible natural challenge on the way.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent, travelling with the president

Image source, Reuters

At 3:43 local time, after an aerial tour of the fire damage, Marine One touched down on a grassy field in Pacific Palisades.

From an Osprey aircraft following the presidential helicopter, the press pool saw entire neighbourhoods that were destroyed. In other spots, houses that burned had been directly adjacent to those that were spared.

There were scorched stretches of mountaintop that appeared to belong to another, barren planet. From here, the president and First Lady, along with California Governor Newsom, will view the damage from the ground.

Carl Nasman
News correspondent

In the last hour I spoke to Republican Congressman from North Carolina Chuck Edwards.

He was with Trump in Air Force One as he flew over affected areas of North Carolina.

Edwards told me he agreed with Trump that Fema, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, should be reformed or cut down to size.

And he didn't think that strings attached to California was a double standard when compared to North Carolina.

Image source, Reuters

Trump’s Press Secretary was talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the president’s official plane, before it touched down in Los Angeles.

Karoline Leavitt seemed surprised when told that the California governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, would greet Trump in California.

The pair have had a long-running war of words over water management, and Trump has sought to blame the governor for the wildfires.

Reporters also asked whether there was a rift between Trump and Elon Musk after Musk bashed a huge private-sector artificial intelligence deal announced this week.

“Elon Musk dislikes one of the gentlemen who was involved in that deal,” she said, referring to OpenAI’s Sam Altman. “That doesn’t make it a bad deal… I was in the Oval Office with Elon Musk and Donald Trump two days ago and everything was dandy.”

Gary O'Donoghue
Senior North America correspondent, in Los Angeles

Even though California's governor, Gavin Newsom, wasn't invited to any of the events arranged by the White House, he - as is the custom for governors - went to the airport to meet Air Force One.

For a number of minutes, he stood at the bottom of the steps.

When Donald Trump and the First Lady did appear, there was a pat on the back from each and a handshake and a kiss on the cheek for Melania.

Despite all the harsh words these two have exchanged, there was a high degree of cordiality for the cameras.

The President thanked the governor for coming to meet him and, in turn, the governor said he'd not forgotten all the help California got from the Trump administration during Covid.

Trump said he was "going to take care of things" and the governor said they would need a lot of federal money.

There was no mention of Trump's threat to tie federal money to changes in the water policy in the state, though it did appear as if the two might speak at some point soon.

The politics behind Trump's two state tourspublished at 23:33 Greenwich Mean Time 24 January

23:33 GMT 24 January

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent, travelling with the president

With back-to-back visits to North Carolina and California, both having been devastated by natural disasters, Donald Trump is inviting contrasts between how he views the two states - and how he wants to respond.

In North Carolina, according to Trump, the federal government's relief efforts and the Biden administration let the victims down. In California, he says it was the state’s Democratic-backed environmental policies – most of which involve areas a considerable distance from the Los Angeles fires – that are to blame.

Trump, just after landing at Asheville, North Carolina, said that California must reform its water regulations and institute mandatory photo identification for voters – a totally unrelated conservative policy – if it is to receive federal aid.

A short while later, I asked Trump if he would place any conditions on aid to North Carolina. He said that the situations in the two states were very different.

Trump’s response came just after he had boasted of the “big numbers” North Carolina had given him when he carried the state in the 2024 presidential election. He later noted that he had won the state in every general election and Republican primary contest in which he had been on the ballot.

Meanwhile, California has consistently voted against Trump in the past three presidential elections by substantial margins.

Some might draw the conclusion that Trump’s willingness to offer unconditional aid may have as much to do with the politics and preferences of the state’s voters as it does about the nature of the disasters.

Image source, US Pool

President Trump and Governor Newsom have met at the base of the stairs for Air Force One and engaged in a fairly lengthy handshake.

They then walked over to waiting media, and Trump says "I appreciate the governor coming out and meeting me".

"We want to get it fixed," the president says, adding the LA fire damage is "like you got hit by a bomb".

Newsom then thanks the president for coming to his state, and says "we're going to need your support, we're going to need your help".

Anthony Zurcher
Travelling with the president on Air Force One

Image source, Anthony Zurcher / BBC

California Governor Gavin Newsom is waiting on the tarmac for President Donald Trump.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed surprise when reporters asked about Newsom being there.

Lisa Lambert
BBC News

As we reported earlier, Trump claims that if his first-term plan to bring more fresh water from California's north to its south had been in place, Los Angeles would not be in the midst of a fire disaster.

The state sued in 2020 to stop his plan to move water away from rivers and the Delta estuary, to farms in the Central Valley.

Trump also told Fox News that the federal government should withhold emergency aid to the state unless it lets "the water run down".

BBC News asked Greg Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, if moving water from northern California into the southland would have helped with either the Pacific Palisades or Eaton fires.

"The short answer is no, absolutely not," he says.

"Of course every marginal bit of water helps with firefighting, but water supply is one part of firefighting... You need not just more water quantity, but the hyperlocal infrastructure to hold it near fires."

Pierce notes that there was much more water in many local LA reservoirs than typical when the recent fires started, thanks to two rainy years.

But that water needed to be "right next to the fires" along with an infrastructure of tanks, hydrants, pipes and sprinklers and power to make an impact.

Based on what we know so far, "it's unreasonable and revisionist history" to blame the water systems, Pierce says.

Caroline Hawley
Reporting from Washington DC

Earlier today at the March for Life rally, we spoke with Coleman Boyd, an anti-abortion activist who was also among those pardoned by Trump yesterday.

Boyd was among a group of activists who blockaded the entrance of a clinic in Nashville that provided abortion care. He was convicted of a felony conspiracy against rights and a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Boyd - who was under house arrest for six months and had five more years of probation - said he was "very thankful" for the pardon, but said Trump was "a horrible president when it comes to abortion".

Trump has previously expressed support for banning abortion overall, except for cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's life. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he said decisions about abortion rights should be left to the states.

He said Trump was "way less pro-life than he was in 2016, he's absolutely a potential ally," and urged the president to uphold existing provisions in the US constitution that state "you shall not take life without due process of the law".