A president touting Musk’s cars from the White House shows this: the Tesla boycott really irks him | Gaby Hinsliff

Trump has met a force he cannot control: people's ability to parade their anger and distaste through consumer choice

What do you buy the richest man in the world? The answer, obviously, is the one thing that usually can't be had for love nor money, and that's pimping out the presidential office for advertising purposes.

Posing with Elon Musk beside a scarlet Tesla parked on the White House driveway, Donald Trump announced that he was buying one of his friend's cars despite not being allowed to drive for security reasons because: I just want people to know that you can't be penalised for being a patriot." The billionaire currently chainsawing his way through so many ordinary federal workers' jobs had, he said indignantly, been unfairly treated by people who inexplicably now seem to have turned against his cars.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist