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Last week, as the blowout between Donald Trump and Elon Musk scaled new heights of pique and acrimony, the president issued an earth-scorching threat to his erstwhile friend, ally, and superdonor. “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions of Dollars,” Trump posted on social media last Thursday, “is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”

Tesla stock, the main source of Musk’s wealth, had almost doubled in value between June 10, 2024, and June 4, 2025, largely in anticipation of the boffo business that his association with Trump would bring. On June 5, the day that Trump mused about canceling his contracts, it plummeted by 14 percent.

Still, like much of Trump’s bluster, this threat was mainly theatrical. Many of Musk’s businesses are too vital for the government to cancel outright. In particular, SpaceX provides launchers for many satellites designed by NASA, the Defense Department, and several spy agencies. Since Trump’s pronouncement, officials have started searching for alternative suppliers, but the agencies have grown too dependent on Musk’s firm; it would take several years for other companies to complete the necessary development and construction to take Musk’s place.

However, there is one way that Trump could penalize Musk without damaging the agencies that buy his company’s products. More than that, it’s a penalty that Musk would deserve by objective measures, quite apart from Trump’s vengeful motives.

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The penalty is this: Take away Musk’s security clearances.

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SpaceX works on many projects where the mission and the technology are highly classified. Without access to these secrets, Musk would be unable to make decisions—or even know the vital details—about these programs. He would therefore no longer be of much value as the company’s CEO, especially since his talents lie mainly in his engineering prowess. The Tesla board would probably have to remove or at least demote him.

For much of last year, this seemed on the verge of happening. According to a lengthy, detailed New York Times article in December, Musk’s behavior came under review by at least three federal agencies—NASA, the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General, and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. In addition, the Air Force denied Musk a high-level security clearance associated with one of the programs involving his company.

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These reviews concluded that Musk had repeatedly violated federal regulations requiring holders of Top Secret clearances to notify security offices whenever they travel abroad or talk with foreign officials. In Musk’s case, these encounters included conversations with Russian and Chinese officials. Musk was also suspected of drug use—in one of his recent posts on social media, Trump called him a “big-time drug addict”—which, if true, would also have violated security rules.

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All the investigations were put on hold after Trump won the election and Musk became the president-elect’s consigliere. Now that the two have fallen out, Trump could notify—even quietly encourage—the relevant offices to resume their probes. Or he wouldn’t even have to be so indirect. Presidents have the power to suspend anyone’s security clearance; Trump has revoked clearances for many former officeholders, including President Joe Biden, for no good reason other than spite. (Such ex-officials have traditionally been allowed to keep clearances, out of courtesy or to allow rapid consultations if, say, their advice is deemed useful during a crisis.) Trump could take away Musk’s clearances with the stroke of a pen—and, in this case, he could cite specific, legitimate reasons for doing so.

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There is good reason to think that many executives inside the Tesla empire would be, on balance, relieved by his removal. According to the Times story about the security investigations, many of the complaints about Musk’s violations were brought to the government’s attention by Tesla insiders who were concerned about national security or simply peeved that they were required to follow the rules while their boss wasn’t.

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Over the weekend, in the course of their escalating threats and counterthreats, Trump warned that Musk would face “very serious consequences” if he funded Democratic candidates in future elections. This is no doubt a real worry on Trump’s part. In the 2024 elections, Musk gave $291 billion—way more than any other donor—to Republican candidates. In a tweet last Thursday, Musk boasted, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House, and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.” He might be right; Trump is very keen to keep Musk from doing similar favors for the Democrats.

This tweet probably provoked Trump to warn of “very serious consequences.” Trump didn’t specify what the consequences would be, but Musk must realize that losing his clearances—and thus, possibly, control of his company—might be among them. If so, this might be Trump’s way of keeping Musk from stepping up the slugfest any further.