In the White House car dealership, Donald Trump attempts to save a Dogebag ...Middle East

Yesterday, in brilliant March sunshine, the neoclassical symbol of what once we called the free world, became an open air car showroom.

On the South White House lawn, beside the Palladian columns – glinting alabaster – sat a crimson Tesla. Beside it a charcoal grey one.

The salesman – you’ll be shocked to hear – was Elon Musk, wearing trademark black fatigues (not a suit) and a matching baseball cap. Beside him, his happy customer – or should we just say another salesman? He sported his own sartorial trademark – navy two piece, bright red tie. One that matched the Tesla beside him quite well.

“Wow!” says Happy Customer Trump. “Everything’s computer… It’s beautiful…, Wow it’s very simple.’’ This, we are led to believe then, is the first time Donald Trump has seen a Tesla car. He gets inside it.

“It’s literally like driving a golf cart,” says Musk, beside him in the passenger seat. Why the golf cart has now become the aspirational vehicle of choice on a highway is left hanging in the air.

Then Trump, reading from the actual script in his actual hand, says: “They have one which is $35,000, which is pretty low.”

A savvy cameraman will later post a close-up of that script which details not just each of the Tesla models but also the deals that can be done on car dealership financing – bringing the price down to the highly affordable $299 a month. This is the script Trump is performing for the selected press pool beside him, having publicly pledged already to buy himself a Tesla.

So there we have it: The Dogebag (as he’s affectionately known) who has taken it upon himself to “cut inefficiency” in the government, and is as we speak firing hundreds of thousands of employees from the American Department of Education, is flogging his electric wares on telly.

We probably always suspected that Trump had a soft spot for the shopping channel – but this now is fully-fledged presidency by QVC.

Tesla’s fortunes have been of some concern over recent weeks. Well, concern that is if you own a Tesla – or indeed own Tesla. From a high point in mid-December when Musk was looking like the de facto VP to the man he is now: crashing space debris around the planet with his failed moonshots and bungling the running of government to the point where nuclear weapons experts with decades of expertise have been fired because apparently “no one understood” what they did.

Tesla’s stock price has halved in recent weeks from that end of year high, because the car is now becoming synonymous with bad government. The stuff no one asked for and and no one wants. Stuff that’s putting regular Americans out of their jobs, threatening benefit payments for veterans and leaving the elderly unsure if they are still covered for healthcare.

There are reports across the US of Tesla showrooms and charging stations on fire and vandalised. This is criminal behaviour, but it’s suggestive of the strength of feeling towards Musk, who’s suddenly in everyone’s life without ever being elected.

That’s where Trump steps in. He’s not promoting Tesla on the White House lawn because he’s worried about Musk’s personal finances. The guy is much richer than he is. He’s propping up Tesla because of that symbolism. If Tesla goes down the toilet, Trump perceives his own stock does too.

To understand Trump it may be helpful to go back a hundred years – to Max Weber, the German sociologist and his theory of “patrimonialism”. This is something Trump embodies.

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You're not being honest if you claim to be shocked by Trump

Jonathan Rauch – writing in The Atlantic – explains it not as a form of government but a style of governing: “It is not defined by institutions or rules; rather, it can infect all forms of government by replacing impersonal, formal lines of authority with personalised, informal ones. Based on individual loyalty and connections, and on rewarding friends and punishing enemies (real or perceived).”

It is, he notes, a leadership style also found within street gangs and criminal organisations.

Seen through the lense of patrimonialism, so much makes sense. Trump must be aware of how corrupt this looks to the average American – using the office of state to help your mate flog a car. But if you believe the state is an extension of your household and your household is the state – well, why not simply use the nice garden on a sunny day?

America’s problems are much bigger than Teslas on the lawn.

Emily Maitlis is a journalist, broadcaster and host of the podcast The News Agents

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