Elon Musk took to X/Twitter on Saturday 22 February to reveal an ultimatum given to federal employees, sent to them via email.
Trump and Musk have been making changes
The close pair have been undergoing serious changes in the federal government since Musk was officially appointed by Trump as a ‘special government employee’ and the head of an unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Vivek Ramaswamy.
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DOGE has been cutting federal spending
Since the creation of DOGE, federal government spending has allegedly been cut by $55 billion, according to the DOGE website.
Among the actions taken to rack up this sum is cutting off funds to USAID and the termination of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) contracts.
The primary objective of DOGE, according to Trump, is to ‘dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies’.
Musk shared an ultimatum given to employees
On Saturday 22 February, Musk shared on X/Twitter an ultimatum given to federal employees.
They were sent an email that demanded they share what they had achieved in the week prior, and stated that if they don’t respond by 11.59pm EST on Monday, they would be effectively classed as resigned.
He posted on X/Twitter about the email
On X/Twitter, Musk 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.”
One employee posted a picture of the email
One person who received the email posted an image of it on social media.
The email read: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.”
“What did you do last week?”
The email was sent out to federal employees after Trump’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), according to the BBC.
The email was from a sender listed as HR, and the subject line was “What did you do last week?”
The resignation threat seems to not be included
The threat of effective resignation seems to have not been mentioned in the email, with emails obtained by CNN also not showing any mention of it, although they were marked as highly important.
FBI director Kash Patel told people not to respond
The move hasn’t been received well, with FBI director Kash Patel advising federal employees not to respond right away to the email, as reported by Sky News.
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses,” Patel said.
Federal court officials echoed Patel’s advice
Federal court officials also echoed Patel’s advice to federal employees, urging them to wait on responding: “Please be advised that this email did not originate from the judiciary or the administrative office and we suggest that no action be taken.”
President of AFGE also called it “disrespectful”
Everett Kelley, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) also called the move “cruel and disrespectful” to US federal employees, according to BBC.
Kelley also said AFGE would “challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country”.
