Musk Email Demands All Federal Employees Justify Their Paychecks By Monday Night or Resign
Earlier this month, a government worker at a Leesburg, Virginia, town hall revealed that members of the Department of Government Efficiency team were conducting 15-minute interviews with federal employees asking them to “justify their existence.” This would allow DOGE to determine if they were necessary to the agency or if they should be fired.
On Saturday afternoon, Elon Musk took things up a notch. In an ominous post on X, he wrote, “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Musk’s post followed President Donald Trump’s morning message on Truth Social: “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE. REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”
As promised, on Saturday evening, all federal workers received an email from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to list five tasks they had accomplished last week. The email requested that employees “cc” their responses to their managers and set a compliance deadline for Monday at 11:59 p.m. EST.
In the subject line of the email, federal employees were asked, “What did you do last week?” Next, they were instructed to “reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
[Note: Pew Research Center estimates that as of November 2024, there were more than 3 million federal employees.]
So, was this move a little too brazen — even for Team Trump? Unsurprisingly, many people believe it crossed a line.
Newly minted FBI Director Kash Patel, a fiercely loyal Trump supporter, has reportedly told employees to “pause any responses” to Musk’s email. According to NBC News, “Patel said the FBI will review the work of its own employees in accordance with its own procedures.”
NBC also reported that State Department employees were told not to respond to the email. “Ambassador Tibor P. Nagy said in an email to employees that the department would respond on employees’ behalf and that ‘no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.’”
Needless to say, Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, wasn’t too pleased by Musk’s email and issued a statement in response. It read:
Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.
The Associated Press reported that federal court officials advised recipients not to respond to the email in a Saturday night message. The officials wrote, “We understand that some judges and judiciary staff have received an email … directing the recipient to reply with 5 accomplishments from the prior week. Please be advised that this email did not originate from the Judiciary or the Administrative Office and we suggest that no action be taken.”
Still, as undiplomatic as Musk’s email was, many people were delighted by his audacity. Here are a few responses to his post on X:
I’d be interested to hear what our readers have to say about this maneuver in the comments section.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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