President Donald Trump‘s chainsaw-wielding, cost-cutting partner Elon Musk threatened federal employees with termination on Saturday, if they did not respond to an email from the Office of Personnel Management highlighting their work last week. The email asked workers to reply and provide “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager” before Monday at 11:59 p.m.
While the OPM message does not imply that a lack of response could lead to an employee getting fired, Musk took to his social media site X, formerly Twitter, and said, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
In a statement, OPM said that the emails are “part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce,” and that “agencies will determine any next steps.”
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the top union representing federal workers, has already said the organization would challenge any “unlawful terminations” that result from not responding.
“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,” he said in a statement. The AFGE represents more than 800,000 federal workers.
“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,” Kelley continued, adding that “AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”
This is the latest move by President Donald Trump‘s administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to purge federal workers and upend long-held government spending practices. The exact number of employees who have had their job cut is unclear, though it is estimated to be in the tens of thousands—a purge that could amount to the biggest job cuts in American history, according to reporting from CNBC on Sunday.
Musk’s post came hours after Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, that he thought “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB.” “BUT,” he added, “I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.” Musk, who has a net worth of over $380 billion, employed this same email tactic at his company, Tesla, and when he took over Twitter.
