Musk’s Government Business Is Too Vital for Trump to Cancel. There’s Still a Way He Could Punish Him.

Donald Trump tweeted that he would terminate Elon Musk's government contracts.

Frida Ghitis : Trump could take away Musk ’s security clearances with the stroke of a pen.

She says it's a penalty that Musk would deserve by objective measures, quite apart from vengeful motives.

Ghitis says Trump has the power to suspend anyone's security clearance without damaging agencies that buy his products.

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..