HOW TRUMP AND MUSK'S FALLOUT WENT NUCLEAR

Theirs was the bromance of the century — destined not to last, but no one predicted it would implode quite so spectacularly. Katie Strick examines a very public break-up

- Katie Strick

This has been a cataclysmic week for Donald Trump. Los Angeles is in meltdown after days of intense protests against federal raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

Fear and anger is spreading across the country, with demonstrations taking place in New York, Chicago, Seattle and Atlanta. There have been clashes between protesters and law enforcement, vandalism and looting, and as a result a curfew was issued for downtown LA, and nearly 5,000 troops, including Marines and the National Guard, urgently mobilised. California governor Gavin Newsom has openly and strongly criticised Trump’s response, accusing him of “pulling a military dragnet” across LA. Newsom, who in a nationally televised address proclaimed that “democracy is under assault right before our eyes”, added that “the moment we've feared has arrived”. He called on Americans to stand up to President Trump.

All of this, and without his best friend Elon Musk to support him. For the past week has seen one of the White House's biggest bust-ups so far in either Trump presidency (and there has been some competition). The power players in this one means that it is having far-reaching global consequences, which are far from over.

Since the beginning of their chest-beating bromance, insiders have predicted that the inevitable implosion of Trump and Musk’s intense and unlikely friendship would play out in public — and play out, it has. Several facts were inevitable in the break-up. It was always going to be eccentric, like their characters. It was always going to be shared with the world. Does an argument even happen if it’s not played out on social media? And there was always going to be one loser. As Tesla investor Ross Gerber put it to reporters last week: “It's the dumbest thing you could possibly do to think that you have more power than the President of the United States.”