From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams. This is the Daily.

Testimonys began this week in one of the most aggressive cases the government has ever brought against a big tech company.

And over the next eight weeks, the Federal Trade Commission, will argue that Mehta,

the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in his college dorm room, should be broken up.

Today, my colleague Cecilia Kang on the strange and contentious relationship between Zuckerberg

and President Trump that has led to this moment and what the case means for both of them.

It's Thursday, April 17th.

Cecilia, you are talking to me from your car, I believe.

Why are you talking to me from your car?

Yeah, I had to run to my car because I'm on a lunch break during an antitrust trial where the Federal Trade Commission is seeking to break up META. And this is a really high-stakes case for META and for Mark Zuckerberg because this case really threatens the

company's entire existence. It's existential because the government is trying to break up

this company that he co-founded two decades ago.

And I've just spent the first half of this week watching Zuckerberg testify as the first

and star witness in the government's case against META.

And when I go back, he will finish up and then we will have the former

chief operating officer, Cheryl Samburg, testify. What's the first week been like?

It's been pretty crazy, long lines to get into the courtroom. The courtroom itself is full of

META's many, many lawyers, as well as the FTC's lawyers and media,

and a lot of just people from the public.

And it's interesting because up until really the minutes before the trial began, I wasn't even

sure that it was going to happen.

Why is that?

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