CNN —

The staggering and exceedingly public rupture in the world’s most consequential and unprecedented partnership was a long time coming. But the surreal state of suspended animation that consumed Washington as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk traded escalating blows on social media obscured a 48-hour period that illustrated a profoundly high-stakes moment for the White House.

Trump’s entire economic agenda is sitting on a knife’s edge . Its most critical components are running up against deadlines and locked in a series of complex negotiations with limited margin for error.

In two days, Musk managed to undercut, attack or inflame just about all of it.

“He’s kind of been a ticking time bomb for a while now,” one person familiar with Musk’s unique and unprecedented role

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