The president has now weighed in on Elon Musk’s controversial email with a stark warning to federal employees.
On Saturday (February 22), two million federal employees received a threatening email from Donald Trump’s ‘First Buddy’, which demanded they outlined five tasks they’d completed in the last week – or else face not having a job to return to.
Musk, who heads up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force, sent the email with a deadline of 11.59pm, Monday (February 24), and said those who failed to respond on time would be interpreted by the government as notice of their resignation.
Trump appears to be backing Musk’s controversial email (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The demand sent federal teams into a frenzy over the weekend with many department leaders, such as FBI director, Kash Patel, advising staff not to respond.
Another Pentagon official said it was the ‘silliest thing’ in their 40-year-long career.
But the billionaire tech mogul doubled down on his email, saying he wanted to identify ‘who had a pulse and two working neurons’ and to see who in the workforce actually checked their emails.
The 53-year-old also lashed out at the ‘incompetence’ of staff who didn’t respond to the ‘utterly trivial’ request by the deadline on Monday night and gave them a fresh ultimatum.
Musk wrote on Twitter: “The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers.”
The pair are reportedly close friends (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
“Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are,” he added.
The President also appeared to have supported the SpaceX founder’s plan, saying there was a ‘lot of genius’ to the email on Monday.
Musk subsequently posted that the deadline has been extended ‘subject to the discretion of the president’.
“[T]hey will be given another chance,” he wrote while reiterating those who fail or ignore them email ‘will result in [their] termination’.
President Trump has now spoken out about the situation during a meeting with French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Trump said: “We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people: Please tell us what you did last week.
“If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not 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.”
The president’s backing comes as Musk’s DOGE is on a cost-cutting mission, which includes axing staff to reduce the size of the bureaucracy.
It also comes as Trump instructed the Tesla boss to ‘get more aggressive’.
According to NBC, DOGE plans on taking the data from the email responses and putting them into an AI system to check what employees are doing are ‘mission-critical’.
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MBMike Barbour1 day agoHA! So, if they don’t exist idiots, then they don’t have to pay taxes on their fictional lives and all taxes they HAVE already paid MUST be returned immediately since they are fictional people. It also means that all the wages they’ve been paid went to a fictional person and you can’t reclaim any…See moreReply2Share
Donald Trump finally discloses what Elon Musk’s real job is for the federal government
Donald Trump has put the ‘President Musk’ rumors to bed once and for all…
While the internet has joked Elon Musk is the ‘real’ president of the United States, Donald Trump has revealed exactly what the tech mogul’s responsibilities are for the federal government.
The pair had a bit of a rocky start to their friendship but grew closer over Trump’s campaign trial in 2024 which has ultimately bagged the billionaire tech aficionado a cosy spot as a special government employee in the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Donald Trump explains how he hired Elon Musk
Credit: Fox News
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The department is tasked with cutting government costs, modernizing federal technology, ending fraud and a waste of taxpayer money while improving overall governmental productivity.
For instance, an audit revealed the Air Force spent more than $1,200 replacing 25 reheatable coffee cups, per cup.
Still, Musk’s position has sparked somewhat of a controversy with the internet creating memes depicting Musk as the ‘president’ and Trump the ‘vice president’ as some critics question who is really running the country, claiming they never voted for Musk.
Campaigners argue they didn’t ‘vote’ for Elon Musk as he apparently takes on a key governmental role (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Now, in an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Tuesday (February 18), the pair talked about their friendship and exactly what Musk does for the federal government.
The Tesla CEO initially said he was just ‘tech support’ for the president, even going so far as to don a black-and-white t-shirt with the phrase emblazoned on, but the 78-year-old president clarified that Musk’s job is to take on the bureaucratic process and ‘get it done’.
As we know, Trump is clearly a big fan of executive orders, having signed dozens in a matter of days into his presidency, but suggested there has been a lag in how they’re adopted – until Musk streamlined the process ‘with his 100 geniuses’.
Musk initially said he was just ‘tech support’ for Donald Trump (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In actuality, new White House documents reveal Musk, who is working for free in the department, isn’t technically part of it all, merely acquiring the title ‘senior advisor to the president’ which has ‘no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself’, reports AP.
Essentially, he’s not the key-decision-maker at DOGE that Trump made him out to be.
Still, the president also joked in the Fox interview that he picked Musk as his go-to man because he ‘couldn’t find anyone smarter’, going so far as to say the team even tried to find someone more intelligent than the SpaceX founder to no avail.
The pair recently spoke about their friendship (Fox News)
The pally interview also saw the duo compliment each other to the point Hannity said he felt he was ‘interviewing two brothers’.
So far, DOGE has cut billions in contracts to private firms that were awarded by the Education Department and the National Institutes of Health, which sits in harmony with Trump’s vision to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Musk also said: “I’m a technologist, and I try to make technologies that improve the world.”
“My t-shirt says tech support, because I’m here to provide the president with technology support,” he continued. “And now that may seem like, well, is that a silly thing? But actually it’s a very important thing, because the president will make these executive orders, which are very sensible and good for the country, but then they don’t get implemented.”
Elsewhere, Musk added: “I love the president. I think President Trump is a good man.”
Trump also praised Musk, describing him as a ‘leader’ and a ‘brilliant guy’.
“He’s got tremendous imagination,” Trump continued. “But he’s also a good person. He’s a very good person.”
