President Donald Trump fired the inspectors general from more than a dozen federal agencies in a Friday night purge, according to a Trump administration official, paving the way for him to install his own picks for the independent watchdog roles.

"I just want voter ID to start, and I want the water to be released, and they're going to get a lot of help from the U.S.," Trump said during a visit to North Carolina. On Wednesday Trump threatened to withhold aid and repeated a false claim that California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials had refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.

As more than 60 square miles Los Angeles violently burned earlier this month, then-President Elect Donald Trump placed blame on a fish. Trump falsely implied in a Truth Social post that Los Angeles lacked the water to put out the fires because Gov.

Trump pledged to provide federal disaster relief for people affected by the deadly wildfires ravaging southern California.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is "ready for negotiations" with U.S. President Donald Trump about how to end the war in Ukraine.