Elon Musk says US federal employees must justify their work or resign
Elon Musk has issued an ultimatum to US federal employees – respond to an email justifying the work they completed this week or resign.
The billionaire boss of X, Tesla and SpaceX also leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which has been tasked with cutting government spending, after he was appointed by President Donald Trump.
It comes after Mr Trump fired America’s top general and a series of other senior military figures.
Posting on X, Mr Musk, who is the world’s richest man, 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.”
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Hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including some judges, court staff and prison officials, have now received the email, from the Office of Personnel Management, with the following instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
They have been given just over 48 hours to explain what they accomplished in the past week.
The deadline to reply was 11.59pm on Monday, although the email did not include Mr Musk’s social media threat about those who fail to respond.
Not every Trump official on same page
According to Sky’s US partner network NBC News, FBI director Kash Patel has told employees to “pause any responses” to the email. He said the bureau will review the work of its own employees in accordance with its own procedures. In addition, state department employees were told not to respond to the email.
Also, federal court officials instructed recipients not to respond.
“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,” officials wrote.
On Friday, Mr Musk celebrated his new role at a gathering of conservatives by waving a chainsaw in the air. He called it “the chainsaw for bureaucracy” and said, “Waste is pretty much everywhere” in the federal government.
Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce – either by being fired or offered buyouts (severance packages) – during the first month of the Trump administration.
There is no official figure available for the total number of dismissals or layoffs so far.
But the cuts include thousands of workers at the departments of veterans affairs, defence, health and human services, the Internal Revenue Service and the national parks service, among others.
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‘Utter disdain for federal employees’
Union leaders have condemned the ultimatum and threatened legal action.
President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Everett Kelley, called the new order an example of Mr Trump and Mr Musk’s “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,” Mr Kelley said.
“AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”
What power does Elon Musk have?
If you look at what he says on X – the social media platform he owns – you’d probably assume Elon Musk wields considerable power in the US government.
And that might well be the case in practice.
His Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been examining and slashing federal spending in a number of departments and has been moving at pace.
DOGE, despite its name, is not an official government department but a temporary contracted organisation.
And according to the White House, Mr Musk “has no actual or formal authority”.
In a court filing, the director of the government’s Office of Administration said Mr Musk is a senior advisor to the president.
It said: “In his role as senior advisor to the president, Mr Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors.
“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make governmental decisions himself.
“Mr Musk can only advise the president and communicate the president’s directives.”
The mass layoffs threatened by the second Trump administration have faced legal hurdles, as federal employees have a number of civil protections under US law.
Most civil service employees can be fired legally only for bad performance or misconduct, and they have a host of due process and appeal rights if they are let go arbitrarily.