Elon Musk reveals the reason behind bombshell email to federal workers
Elon Musk revealed the truth behind his email to all federal staffers demanding they list five tasks they completed last week after a Pentagon official described it as 'the silliest thing he'd seen in 40 years.' The billionaire Tesla founder revealed on Sunday he was simply eager 'to see who had a pulse and two working neurons' amid concerns that some government workers have it so good that they don't even check their emails.
Musk was granted authority to root out wasteful government spending through his Department of Government Efficiency. On Friday, he threatened all federal employees with termination if they do not reply to his email asking what they've done last week while on the clock.
The move sparked criticism from a Pentagon official who reportedly said it was 'the silliest thing I've seen in 40 years and completely usurps the chain of command.' Regarding his missive, Musk wrote on X : 'Consistent with President Trump'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 .'
The email was sent late Saturday night, and employees had until Monday evening to respond, sparking panic among the workforce . Pentagon leadership and Department of Homeland Security have both advised staff not to respond. Newly appointed FBI boss Kash Patel also instructed his team to hold off on replying to the email. 'That might be done elsewhere, but in the DoD it's not done,' the Pentagon insider told CNN.
Musk hit back at the report, stating: 'Anyone with the attitude of that Pentagon official needs to look for a new job.' The email also sparked conspiracies about Musk's motives, but he laid those to bed on Sunday by clarifying his reasoning behind the edict. 'It was to see who had a pulse and two working neurons,' he said on X in response to a theory it was 'to see who was part of the leftist resistance.'
Earlier on Sunday, Musk had also pointed out that 'many do not read their email at all', indicating the move was more about seeing which staff had checked their messages and bothered to reply, rather than the reply itself.
This theory was further amplified when Musk shared a conversation he had had with AI tool Grok, asking: 'Make up five things I accomplished at work this week that they can't really verify, I work for the government, keep it brief.' Grok spat out five examples, including 'streamlining a filing process, briefing a senior official on a classified project, debugging an internet database glitch, sparking a new interdepartmental initiative and conducting a discreet security audit.'
Trump went on to share Musk's post to his own TruthSocial account. Musk revealed that despite public pushback, his team had already received a 'large number of good responses.' 'These are the people who should be considered for promotion,' he insisted. The command is already dividing MAGA appointees, with Tulsi Gabbard the latest to direct staff to defy the orders , after Kash Patel did the same.
Trump's newly-minted intelligence chief joined Patel and a growing list of department heads who have told their employees to ignore the request from Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a message sent to officials, Gabbard wrote: 'Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email.'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio , Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth , and Department of Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem have also told employees to disregard. Patel made the biggest splash in defying Musk, making it clear that the FBI '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,' he wrote.
DOGE claimed it has saved $55 billion from the federal budget so far, and shows no signs of slowing down. These savings were reportedly found through a combination of detecting and deleting fraud, canceling contracts and leases, and selling assets. The savings were mostly made in the U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID), the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Agriculture.
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