The United States will not pay for the security protection of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they reportedly moved from Canada to California, Donald Trump has said.

In a tweet in which the US president said he was a “great friend and admirer of. the Queen and the United Kingdom”, he added that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “must pay!”.

The couple left their rented home in Vancouver and took a private flight to the US before the border between the two countries closed last week, the Sun reported on Sunday.

Harry, Meghan and baby Archie are now said to be living in lockdown close to Hollywood in accordance with the sunshine state’s Covid-19 containment measures.

A source told the Sun: “Harry and Meghan have left Canada now for good.

“The borders were closing and the flights were stopping. They had to get out.”

The source added: “But this move was planned for some time. They realised Canada would not work out for various reasons and they want to be based in the Los Angeles area.

“They have a big support network there. It’s where their new team of Hollywood agents and PRs and business managers are based. Meghan has lots of friends there and, of course, her mum Doria.”

The couple do not officially step down as senior royals until the end of this month.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, PA Media reports.

Despite the US death toll from coronavirus passing 2,400 on Sunday, Trump instead tweeted about the “ratings hit” his White House briefings had become.

Without any mention of the dead, the president instead quoted highly selective quotes from a New York Times article from four days ago.

Sections he omitted include:

“And the audience is expanding even as Mr. Trump has repeatedly delivered information that doctors and public health officials have called ill informed, misleading or downright wrong.”

And…

“The emergence of the pandemic has raised the stakes for what had existed mostly as an insular discussion among media ethicists. Now, the president’s critics say, lives are at risk.”