Donald Trump told Elon Musk to expect “very serious consequences” if he funds political candidates Trump opposes. This threat didn’t come through a leak or backchannel message—it came directly from the president during a phone interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. That message followed a series of public jabs between the two men, revealing a larger question: What happens when the president of the United States threatens to retaliate against a private citizen for political donations?

Trump’s threat wasn’t vague. In a Thursday post, he suggested cutting off federal contracts and subsidies to Musk’s companies as a budget-saving measure. That post followed Musk’s public criticism of the GOP’s latest budget legislation and his call to vote out incumbents in 2026. The billionaire also floated the idea of launching a new political party “to represent the 80% in the middle.” Trump responded within days, warning that if Musk backs Democratic candidates in the midterms, he’ll suffer unspecified consequences. The president didn’t explain what those would be but insisted they’d be “very serious.”