Trump says workers who don’t respond to Musk’s email risk being fired

Donald Trump stood by his adviser Elon Musk and the email he helped create that demanded millions of federal workers justify the work they did last week. ‘If you don’t answer, like you’re sort of semi-fired,’ Trump said.

Elon Musk’s email prompted pushback from some other senior officials. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

President Trump on Monday stood by his adviser Elon Musk and the Saturday email he helped create that demanded millions of federal workers justify the work they did last week.

Trump doubled down on Musk’s weekend tweet announcing the email, in which the billionaire said nonresponses would be considered resignations.

“What he’s doing is saying, ‘are you actually working?’ And then if you don’t answer, like you’re sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist,” Trump said, sitting next to French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office.

He also called the email “great.” The Saturday email, which asked “What did you do last week?” in the subject line, told federal workers to respond by 11:59pm. Monday with a list of “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.” The note didn’t say that nonresponses would be considered resignations.

Musk’s plan for the email came together in a matter of hours on Saturday, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Earlier in the day, Trump posted on social media that he wanted the Tesla chief executive to “get more aggressive” with his role. In response, Musk and his team at DOGE jumped into high gear to implement the what-did-you-do-last-week email.

It prompted pushback from some other senior officials, who told their teams to pause responding to the directive.

Trump told reporters at the Macron meeting that agency leaders pausing their employees’ responses was only to protect confidential records “That was done in a friendly manner,” he said. “They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon.”

The Wall Street Journal