Encouraged, Elon Musk once again directs federal employees to justify their existence in writing.
Musk made a new request in a social media post Monday after President Donald Trump appeared to have contradicted other senior administration officials and approved an order that the billionaire first sent to workers over the weekend.
“When they are exposed to the president’s discretion, they are given another opportunity,” Musk said. I wrote it on x. “If the second response fails, a termination occurs.”
The effectiveness of the billionaire government on Saturday emailed federal agencies with the subject “What Did You Do Last Week?” Especially after musk, there was a lot of confusion and fear among the workers Posted on x A failure to respond would be “a resignation.”
Several agency managers, including FBI directors Kash Patel and directors of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said they didn’t need to reply to staff, and the Human Resources Administration later revealed that their response to emails was “voluntary.”
Musk, the head of the Doge, is threatening to significantly reduce federal workers, abandon thousands of workers and cut the entire agency. It is unknown that no matter what legal authority he has, he must remove a federal employee who refuses to comply with his requests.
Trump praised Musk’s approach on Monday. “We have people who don’t show up for work and no one even knows if they’re working for the government, so I thought it was great,” he said.
He also defended some of his agency manager’s decisions to urge staff to ignore emails on reasons of confidentiality. “They’re just saying there are people who don’t really want to tell them what they’re doing last week,” Trump said.
Musk’s email quickly sparked a fire that was criticised by lawmakers and unions over the weekend.
“Elon Musk hurts hardworking federal employees, their children and their families,” minority leader Hakem Jeffries said Sunday. “He has no legal authority to make the latest requests. We will block him in Congress and in court. Also.”
Everett Kelly, national president of the United States Federation of Government Employees, union representing 800,000 federal workers; Musk’s criticism He described the original order as “a cynical attempt” to scare workers from smoking bans.
The latest version draws Scorn from AFGE spokesman Brittany Holder.
“If I took the time to comment on all the outrageous things Elon Musk tweeted, I would never get the job done,” Holder said. “Our attitude will remain the same forever, and AFGE will challenge illegal discipline, termination or retaliation against members and federal employees across the country.”