Thousands of dollars have been raised in support of the two victims of a wrong-way crash on Wellington’s motorway on Tuesday. Genna Te Kahika was driving with her brother Jeremy early Tuesday morning when their car was hit by another…

Amanda Gorman, the first-ever youth poet laureate in the US, called for Americans to "leave behind a country better than the one we were left" and unify together as she spoke at President Joe Biden's inauguration.

"Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming President, only to find herself reciting for one," Ms Gorman, 22, said.

Nodding to the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol earlier this month, Ms Gorman said, "We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it."

READ MORE: Kamala Harris opens new chapter in US politics as first female Vice President

"Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated," she said.

Ms Gorman previously told CNN that she drew inspiration for the poem from the two poems read at former president Barack Obama's inauguration – Richard Blanco's 2013 'One Today' and Elizabeth Alexander's 2009 'Praise Song for the Day' – and writers, such as Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass, whom she feels have spoken to the ideals of a nation.

Ms Gorman, who regularly draws from current political events in her work, also spoke of the need for social change: "We learned that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what 'just is' isn't always justice."

"We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colours, characters and conditions of man," Gorman said. "And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all."

Born and raised in Los Angeles by a single-mother and sixth-grade English teacher, Gorman started writing poems when she was a child, but found it terrifying to perform due to a speech impediment. She overcame that fear by drawing confidence from former President Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr., and practices songs from the Broadway musical 'Hamilton'.

She was halfway through writing the inauguration poem when she saw the pro-Trump mob storm the very same Capitol at which she spoke Wednesday, and she previously told CNN she would attempt to "communicate a message of joining together and crossing divides."

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His presidency over, Donald Trump has said farewell to Washington but also hinted about a comeback despite a legacy of chaos, tumult and bitter divisions in the country he led for four years.

“So just a goodbye. We love you," Trump told supporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland where he walked across a red carpet and boarded Air Force One to head to Florida. "We will be back in some form.”

Trump departed office as the only president ever impeached twice, and with millions more out of work than when he was sworn in and 400,000 dead from the coronavirus. Under his watch, Republicans lost the presidency and both chambers of Congress. He will be forever remembered for inciting an insurrection, two weeks before Democrat Joe Biden moved into the White House, at the Capitol that left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer, and horrified the nation. It was on Trump's Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, that he had painted a dire picture of “American carnage."

READ MORE: Trump says 'we'll be back' as he leaves White House

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The first president in modern history to boycott his successor’s inauguration, Trump is still stewing about his loss and maintains that the election won by Biden was stolen from him. Republican officials in several critical states, members of his own administration and a wide swath of judges, including those appointed by Trump, have rejected those arguments.

Trump refused to participate in any of the symbolic passing-of-the-torch traditions surrounding the peaceful transition of power, including inviting Joe and Jill Biden to the White House for a get-to-know-you visit.

He did follow at least one tradition: The White House said Trump left behind a note for Biden. A Trump spokesman, Judd Deere, declined to say what Trump wrote or characterise the sentiment in the note, citing privacy for communication between presidents.

Members of Trump’s family gathered for the send-off on the military base along with the president’s loyalists, who chanted “We love you!” “Thank you, Trump” and “U.S.A.” Four Army cannons fired a 21-gun salute.

Speaking without notes, Trump said his presidency was an “incredible four years.” He told the crowd that he and first lady Melania Trump loved them and praised his family for its hard work, saying they could have chosen to have an easier life.

“It’s been something very special. We’ve accomplished a lot,” Trump said, citing the installation of conservative judges, creation of the space force, development of coronavirus vaccines and management of a robust pre-pandemic economy. “I hope they don’t raise your taxes, but if they do, I told you so,” he said of the Biden administration.

He acknowledged his was not a “regular administration” and told his backers that he would be returning in some form. He said the Trump campaign had worked so hard: “We’ve left it all on the field," he said.

Without mentioning Biden's name, Trump wished the new administration great luck and success, which he said would be made easier because he had laid “a foundation.”

“I will always fight for you," he told the crowd. “I will be watching. I will be listening.”

Before arriving at the airport, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House that being president had been the honour of his lifetime.

“We love the American people, and again, it has been something very special," he said over the sound of the Marine One helicopter. "And I just want to say goodbye, but hopefully it’s not a long-term goodbye. We’ll see each other again.”

Trump and first lady Melania Trump landed in Florida more than an hour before Biden was sworn in as the 46th US President. Air Force One flew low along the Florida coast as Biden's inauguration ceremony flashed across televisions on board. A loud cheer went up from the crowd awaiting his arrival when the plane made a low approach to Palm Beach International Airport as the “Star-Spangled Banner” played over loudspeakers.

Several hundred supporters lined his route to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club. It had a party atmosphere. Trump and American flags waved, with many supporters wearing red, white and blue clothing.

Shari Ackerly parked her three-wheeled motorcycle along the road, painted with red, white and blue stripes and “Trump – Make America Great.” A Trump-Pence campaign sign laid against the headrest, the vice president’s name crossed out.

Ackerly said she wanted to show her support for Trump, saying she supported him since he gave Sen. Ted Cruz the nickname “Lyin’ Ted” in the 2016 Republican debates. “He told it like it is,” she said.

The crowd of supporters grew as Trump got closer to his club. His vehicle slowed to a crawl and he saw signs proclaiming: “THANK YOU” and “TRUMP WON!”

As supporters chanted “We love you!” Trump mouthed “I love back” and raised his fist.

In Florida, he will face an uncertain future.

Aides had urged Trump to spend his final days in office trying to salvage his legacy by highlighting his administration’s achievements — tax cuts, scaled-back federal regulations, normalising relations in the Middle East. But Trump largely refused, taking a single trip to the Texas border and releasing a video in which he pledged to his supporters that “the movement we started is only just beginning.”

In his final hours, Trump issued pardons for more than 140 people, including his former strategist, rap performers, ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family. Then, just as Biden made his entrance at the Capitol but before he took the oath of office, Trump announced that he was pardoning Al Pirro, the ex-husband of Fox News Channel host and Trump ally Jeanine Pirro. Al Pirro was convicted of conspiracy and tax evasion charges and sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2000.

Trump will be in Florida with a small group of former White House aides as he charts a political future that looks very different now from just two weeks ago.

Before the Capitol riot, Trump had been expected to remain his party’s de facto leader, wielding enormous power as he served as a kingmaker and mulled a 2024 presidential run. But now he appears more powerless than ever — shunned by so many in his party, impeached twice, denied the Twitter bullhorn he had intended to use as his weapon and even facing the prospect that, if he is convicted in his Senate trial, he could be barred from seeking a second term.

For now, Trump remains angry and embarrassed, consumed with rage and grievance. He spent the week after the election sinking deeper and deeper into a world of conspiracy, and those who have spoken with him say he continues to believe he won in November. He has lashed out at Republicans for perceived disloyalty and has threatened, both publicly and privately, to spend the coming years backing primary challenges against those he feel betrayed him.

Some expect him to eventually turn completely on the Republican Party, perhaps by flirting with a run as a third-party candidate as an act of revenge.

For all the chaos and drama and bending the world to his will, Trump ended his term as he began it: largely alone. The Republican Party he co-opted finally appeared to have had enough after Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol, hunting for lawmakers who refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional efforts to overturn the results of a democratic election.

White House cleaning crews worked overnight Wednesday and were still going as the sun rose to get the building cleaned and ready for its new occupants. Most walls were stripped down to the hooks that once held photographs, and offices were devoid of the clutter and trinkets that gave them life.

While Trump has left the White House, he retains his grip on the Republican base, with the support of millions of loyal voters, along with allies still helming the Republican National Committee and many state party organisations.

The city he leaves will not miss him. Trump rarely left the confines of the White House, except to visit his own hotel. He and his wife never once ate dinner at any other local restaurant and never ventured out to shop in its stores or see the sites. When he did leave, it was almost always to one of his properties: his golf course in Virginia, his golf course in New Jersey, his private club and nearby golf course in Palm Beach, Florida.

The city overwhelmingly supported Biden, with 93 percent of the vote. Trump received just 5.4 percent of the vote — or fewer than 18,600 ballots — not enough to fill the Washington Capitals hockey arena.

Vice President Kamala Harris broke the barrier Wednesday that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for more than two centuries when she took the oath to hold the nation's second-highest office.

Harris was sworn in as the nation's first female vice president — and the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the role — in front of the US Capitol by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The moment was steeped in history and significance in more ways than one. She was escorted to the podium by Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, the officer who single-handedly took on a mob of Trump supporters as they tried to breach the Senate floor during the Capitol insurrection that sought to overturn the election results. Harris was wearing clothes from two young, emerging Black designers — a deep purple dress and coat.

LIVE COVERAGE: Inauguration Day 2021

After taking the oath of office, a beaming Harris hugged her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and gave President-elect Joe Biden a first bump.

Her rise is historic in any context, another moment when a stubborn boundary will fall away, expanding the idea of what's possible in American politics. But it's particularly meaningful because Harris will be taking office at a moment of deep consequence, with Americans grappling over the role of institutional racism and confronting a pandemic that has disproportionately devastated Black and brown communities.

Those close to Harris say she'll bring an important — and often missing — perspective in the debates on how to overcome the many hurdles facing the incoming administration.

"In many folks' lifetimes, we experienced a segregated United States," said Lateefah Simon, a civil rights advocate and longtime Harris friend and mentee. "You will now have a Black woman who will walk into the White House not as a guest but as a second in command of the free world."

Harris — the child of immigrants, a stepmother of two and the wife of a Jewish man — "carries an intersectional story of so many Americans who are never seen and heard."

Harris, 56, moves into the vice presidency just four years after she first went to Washington as a senator from California, where she'd previously served as attorney general and as San Francisco's district attorney. She had expected to work with a White House run by Hillary Clinton, but President Donald Trump's victory quickly scrambled the nation's capital and set the stage for the rise of a new class of Democratic stars.

After Harris' own presidential bid fizzled, her rise continued when Joe Biden chose her as his running mate last August. Harris had been a close friend of Beau Biden, the elder son of Joe Biden and a former Delaware attorney general who died in 2015 of cancer.

The inauguration activities included nods to her history-making role and her personal story.

Harris used two Bibles to take the oath, one that belonged to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the late civil rights icon whom Harris often cites as inspiration, and Regina Shelton, who helped raise Harris during her childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. The drumline from Harris' alma mater, Howard University, joined the presidential escort.

To mark the occasion, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the nation's oldest sorority for Black women that Harris joined at Howard University declared Wednesday as Soror Kamala D. Harris Day.

"This event will certainly be a momentous occasion that will go down in the annals of our archives as one of the greatest days the founders' of Alpha Kappa Alpha could have envisioned," said Dr. Glenda Glover, the sorority's international president and chief executive office.

She'll address the nation later in front of the Lincoln Memorial, a symbolic choice as the nation endures one of its most divided stretches since the Civil War.

Harris has often reflected on her rise through politics by recalling the lessons of her mother, who taught her to take on a larger cause and push through adversity.

"I was raised to not hear 'no.' Let me be clear about it. So it wasn't like, "Oh, the possibilities are immense. Whatever you want to do, you can do,'" she recalled during a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview that aired Sunday. "No, I was raised to understand many people will tell you, 'It is impossible,' but don't listen.'"

Harris' swearing-in holds more symbolic weight than that of any vice president in modern times.

She will expand the definition of who gets to hold power in American politics, said Martha S. Jones, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and the author of "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All."

People who want to understand Harris and connect with her will have to learn about what it means to graduate from a historically Black college and university rather than an Ivy League school. They will have to understand Harris' traditions, like the Hindu celebration of Diwali, Jones said.

"Folks are going to have to adapt to her rather than her adapting to them," Jones said.

Her election to the vice presidency should be just the beginning of putting Black women in leadership positions, Jones said, particularly after the role Black women played in organising and turning out voters in the November election.

"We will all learn what happens to the kind of capacities and insights of Black women in politics when those capacities and insights are permitted to lead," Jones said.