Elon Musk has issued an ultimatum to US federal workers – respond to an email justifying the work they completed this week or resign.
The billionaire boss of X, Tesla and SpaceX also leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which has been tasked with cutting government spending, after he was appointed by President Trump.
Posting on X, Mr Musk, who is the world’s richest man, 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.”
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including some judges, court staff and prison officials, have now received the email with the following instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
They have been given just over 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the past week.
The deadline to reply was 11.59pm on Monday, although the email did not include Mr Musk’s social media threat about those who fail to respond.
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According to Sky’s US partner network NBC News, FBI director Kash Patel has told employees to “pause any responses” to the email. He said the bureau will review the work of its own employees in accordance with its own procedures. In addition, state department employees were told not to respond to the email.
Also, federal court officials instructed recipients not to respond.
“We understand that some judges and judiciary staff have received an email … directing the recipient to reply with 5 accomplishments from the prior week. Please be advised that this email did not originate from the judiciary or the administrative office and we suggest that no action be taken,” officials wrote.
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On Friday, Mr Musk celebrated his new role at a gathering of conservatives by waving a chainsaw in the air. He called it “the chainsaw for bureaucracy” and said, “Waste is pretty much everywhere” in the federal government.
Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce – either by being fired or offered buyouts (severance packages) – during the first month of the Trump administration.
There is no official figure available for the total number of dismissals or layoffs so far.
But the cuts include thousands of workers at the departments of veterans affairs, defence, health and human services, the Internal Revenue Service and the national parks service, among others.
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‘Utter disdain for federal employees’
Union leaders have condemned the ultimatum and threatened legal action.
President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Everett Kelley, called the new order an example of Mr Trump and Mr Musk’s “utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people”.
“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,” Mr Kelley said.
“AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”
