WASHINGTON DC: Elon Musk, the billionaire head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), threatened Saturday to fire any federal worker who fails to explain what work they have accomplished during the previous week.
The threat, issued in a post on the social media site X, was made just hours after President Donald Trump posted on his own social media network Truth Social that DOGE should get more aggressive in its attempts to downsize and reshape the federal workforce.
“All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
As of Saturday evening, emails were sent to employees at federal agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others with the subject line, “What did you do last week?”
The email, seen by Reuters, asks employees to reply to the email they have received with five bullet points summarizing “what you accomplished at work last week” and copy their managers.
The email sent from a human resources address gives employees until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday to respond.
It is unclear what legal basis Musk has to terminate federal workers if they fail to respond to his request.
Workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also received the email Saturday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. However, most agency staff had been ordered not to perform any tasks since early this month, creating a conundrum. The agency is also under a temporary court order not to resume mass firings pending the outcome of legal proceedings.
A spokesperson for DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The AFGE, the union representing federal employees, said in a statement it will challenge any “unlawful terminations.”
“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,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.
The Trump administration’s fast-paced and controversial process to reduce government spending by shrinking the federal workforce led by Musk and his young aides at the cost-cutting DOGE has led to haphazard firings that resulted in numerous mistakes and forced several agencies to quickly rehire vital employees, such as those working on nuclear safety, defense and power generation.
The first wave of job cuts has targeted workers who are easier to fire, such as employees on the job for less than two years or those who have started new roles within an agency.
The indiscriminate firings have led to DOGE terminating people whose jobs are not funded by taxpayers and have begun to anger people across the country who are concerned about a loss of services as well as the impact of federal job losses on local economies.
Trump has repeatedly talked about Musk as the functional leader of DOGE, which is not a Cabinet-level department, but the White House said in a court filing earlier this month that Musk had no authority over DOGE and was not an employee of the program.
(VOA/Reuters)
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