President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Sunday he will visit Southern California to survey the damage caused by raging wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area that have left at least 27 people dead and thousands of residents displaced. "Tonight, I also want to send our love to everyone affected by the terrible wildfires raging in California," Trump told his supporters during a rally in Washington at Capital One Arena. "We're going to be there very soon. I'm going to go out there on Friday to see it and to get it moving back." Trump's visit to Los Angeles will likely be the first official trip of his second term as president following his inauguration on Monday. He vowed to "get some of the best builders in the world" to reconstruct the affected areas across Los Angeles County.

President Donald Trump's first trip since being sworn into office for a second time will include a stop in Hurricane Helene-damaged western North Carolina. Trump told reporters Tuesday that he would visit western North Carolina, wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles and Nevada on Friday. A person directly familiar with Trump's plans confirmed the Friday visit to WRAL on Tuesday morning. "I'm going to North Carolina which has abandoned by the Democrats," Trump said Tuesday. "I'm going to North Carolina, very importantly, first." North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, signed five executive orders related to Helene recovery on his first day in office. Stein spent Monday in Asheville.

President Trump is scheduled to travel to both North Carolina and California on Friday for the first trips of his second term, a White House official told The Post Tuesday Trump had hinted he would visit California to survey the aftermath of wildfires that ravaged the LA area, but had not previously said he would be going to North Carolina to view recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene. Trump has spoken about both disasters as evidence of failures by Democratic leadership. He mentioned North Carolina, where 200,000 people were impacted by housing damages following the deadly September hurricane, in his inaugural address Monday. “Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina, who’ve been treated so badly, and other states that are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago,” Trump said in his address. He then noted the California fires, saying, “we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense.