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  US President Joe Biden has begun to undo some of Donald Trump’s key policies, hours after being sworn in. “There is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face,”  he tweeted as he headed  to the White House following his inauguration. President Biden signed 15 executive orders, firstly to boost the federal response to the coronavirus crisis. Other orders reverse the Trump administration’s stance on climate change and immigration. Mr Biden set to work at the Oval Office having been sworn in earlier on Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States. The inauguration was unlike any other due to coronavirus restrictions, with few present to witness the oaths and ceremonies. Donald Trump — who has still not formally conceded the presidency to Mr Biden — snubbed the event in a departure from longstanding precedent. “Democracy has prevailed,” President Biden said after taking the oath of office with Chief Justice John Roberts. Delivering a message of un...

  The last vestiges of the Trump presidency will be swept away on Wednesday, as the Bidens move into the White House. Desks will have been cleared out, rooms scrubbed clean and the president’s aides will be replaced by a new team of political appointees. It’s part of the massive transformation that a new presidency brings to the heart of government. One evening last week, Stephen Miller, a policy adviser and central figure in the Trump White House, was lounging in the West Wing. Miller, who has crafted speeches and policies for the president since his early days in office, is also one of the few members of the president’s initial team still with him at the end. Leaning against a wall and chatting with colleagues about a meeting scheduled for later that day, he seemed in no hurry to leave. The West Wing usually hums with activity but it seemed deserted. The phones were quiet. Desks in empty offices were cluttered with papers and unopened letters, as if people had left in a hurry and...

  Joe Biden is to be sworn in as US president, taking the helm of a nation wracked by political division, economic anguish and an unrelenting pandemic. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris will take the oath of office alongside him in Washington DC, which has been fortified amid fears of civil unrest. Some 25,000 troops will guard the inauguration ceremony after a deadly riot at the Capitol earlier this month. Donald Trump will leave the White House for the last time, bound for Florida. He will not be attending the inauguration ceremony. How will inauguration day unfold? Mr Biden will be sworn in as 46th president of the United States by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts shortly before midday (17:00 GMT) on Wednesday outside the US Capitol. Due to Covid restrictions, the ceremony will be bereft of the cheering throngs of well-wishers traditional at inaugurations. It will also see extra-tight security after the US Capitol was breached by violent pro-Trump protesters on 6 Januar...

  In the end, the master provocateur ended up provoking the wrong person in the wrong way at the wrong time. Until August 2017, Steve Bannon was arguably the second most powerful man in Washington. The president’s one-time chief strategist was the puller of strings, the Trump-whisperer, revelling in his role as an agent of chaos. After the 2016 election, he was among “the best talent in politics” — in Trump’s words. Then he became “Sloppy Steve”, a derogatory nickname used by the US president after Bannon was quoted in a book saying several things that appear to have made his former boss unhappy. One example that made headlines was that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, had committed a “treasonous” act in talking to Russians. Bannon’s backers cut their ties with him, he left the powerful right-wing media empire Breitbart, and the future of the man behind some of Trump’s most headline-grabbing policies was left up in the air. And then in August 2020, more bad news. Bannon w...