Donald and Melania Trump have arrived in Marine One at Joint Base Andrews.

The presidential helicopter made the short journey from the White House.

Donald Trump emerged from the White House on Wednesday morning and strode across the South Lawn to board Marine One. He said: “It’s been a great honour, the honour of a lifetime.”

A red carpet has been placed on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland for Mr Trump to walk as he boards the plane. Four US Army cannons are set up for a 21-gun salute. Mr Trump then flies to Florida, where he’ll stay at Mar-a-Lago.

Donald Trump has departed the White House for the final time. 

He paused briefly to speak to the press before walking to Marine One.

The president will head to Joint Base Andrews to give a speech, notably without a teleprompter.

Melania Trump asked her aides to write thank you cards to White House taff, CNN has reported.

The outgoing first lady tasked a lower-level East Wing staffer with writing them “in her voice” and she signed her name, the article claimed.

Donald Trump is poised to leave the White House imminently with Marine One parked on the south lawn.

Joe Biden’s team fear the chaos they are expecting to inherit from the Trump administration is just the “tip of the iceberg”, according to a report.

An account laid out by Politico paints a picture of dysfunction that goes beyond a general apathy about ensuring a seamless transfer of power.

Trump administration political appointees were said to be preventing the Biden camp from accessing data as well as sitting in on meetings they were holding with government staff.

“Even as late as now, they’re not conveying information,” one person told the news outlet. 

“Data about where vaccines are, their distributional analyses, data they haven’t released publicly about Covid cases. It’s shocking. I don’t remember this happening from Clinton to Bush, from Bush to Obama, or from Obama to Trump.”

Donald Trump released a farewell address to the nation on Tuesday night, telling his “make America great again” supporters once again that their movement was “just beginning”.

The speech, made hours before Joe Biden was due to be inaugurated as president, contained a string of falsehoods and distortions of Mr Trump’s record.

Theresa May has urged her successor Boris Johnson to protect Britain’s values to help strengthen ties with the new US administration, saying his threat to break international law did nothing to raise “our credibility”.

The former PM, who said she “never knew what to expect” from Donald Trump, described the inauguration of Joe Biden in an article in the Daily Mail  as a chance for both countries to better promote democratic values.

Ms May prompted criticism from some opposition lawmakers for being too close to Trump after he held her hand during a visit to Washington. But she has been outspoken in her criticism of Mr Johnson since he replaced her in 2019.

“The arrival of President Biden provides Britain with a golden opportunity,” she said in the article.

As the clock ticks down on Donald Trump’s final hours in the White House, a team of 90 people is ready to prepare the building for the incoming president and his wife.

The White House residence staff must lead the way on decorative changes as well as implementing a Covid-19 deep clean.

From immigration to education, Covid and the climate crisis, Joe Biden and his allies say Donald Trump has left a trail of missteps and misdeeds. 

The Independent’s team of reporters consider what Mr Biden can do to solve it.