Co-President Elon Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity is inflicting but extra pointless chaos within the federal workforce. That is after he despatched an e mail on Saturday demanding that each federal worker in the US ship him an e mail itemizing 5 issues they completed of their earlier week of labor, or else be unceremoniously fired.
The e-mail has precipitated absolute mayhem, with already traumatized staff who’ve seen President Donald Trump and Musk fireplace their colleagues with no rhyme or motive getting combined alerts about how and even whether or not they need to reply.
A number of Trump Cupboard officers are directing staff to not reply, as having staff who work with categorized or delicate data ship an e mail itemizing their work may very well be a nationwide safety threat.
For instance, the Division of Protection advised all of its staff to “pause any response” to Musk’s e mail.
“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” Darin S. Selnick, performing beneath secretary of protection for personnel and readiness, mentioned in a assertion posted on Musk’s X platform.
Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard additionally instructed intelligence staffers to not reply, saying in an e mail obtained by The New York Occasions that, “Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, IC employees should not respond to the OPM email.”
The FBI, State Division, Division of Homeland Safety, and Division of Well being and Human Companies have additionally advised staff to not reply, in accordance to the Washington Submit, which added that even that steerage has been complicated.
From the Washington Submit report:
Workers on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company have been advised definitively to answer — a couple of hours earlier than DHS despatched a word saying the alternative. In some components of the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staffers acquired directions to draft a response however not ship it but. At different businesses, such because the Division of Well being and Human Companies, staff have been first given one instruction solely to be emailed later to pause and look ahead to extra steerage Monday.
However Musk—who the Trump administration ridiculously says isn’t even in cost of DOGE—remains to be saying that staff have to reply to the e-mail.
“Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere,” Musk wrote in a put up on X at 5:38 AM ET on Monday.
And Trump himself posted a meme making enjoyable of staff who’re upset that they need to ship an e mail justifying their work, and saying that he desires Musk to get even MORE aggressive than he is already been—suggesting he’s on Musk’s aspect.
“ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE. REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!” Trump wrote in an all-caps screed on Fact Social.
Except for the chaos the e-mail is inflicting, specialists say the intent behind the e-mail is asinine and unhelpful.
For instance, Federal Aviation Administration air site visitors controllers acquired the e-mail. These staff are already working 10-hour shifts, six days per week because of employees shortages, so making them use their time to write down an e mail justifying their jobs is simply busywork that will not make air site visitors extra protected within the wake of a number of lethal airline disasters since Trump took workplace.
“This weekend’s mass e mail is an pointless distraction to a fragile system,” the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the labor union representing air traffic controllers, said in a assertion to CNN aviation and transportation correspondent Pete Muntean.
And even some GOP lawmakers are saying the e-mail demand is silly.
“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) wrote in a put up on X. “Our public servants work hard to ensure that our national security is protected; that planes land safely; that forest fires do not spread to our homes; that Social Security checks arrive on time; that research for the breakthroughs needed to cure diseases like cancer and ALS continues; and much more. Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
“Look, I don’t know how that’s necessarily feasible,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) mentioned in an look on ABC’s “This Week” of the Musk e mail. “Obviously, a lot of federal employees are under union contract.”
Federal staff are additionally talking out.
“Sometimes you want to take things with a grain of salt, but then you’re slapped in the face,” an unnamed federal worker advised a native Oklahoma tv station. (Oklahoma has one of many highest populations of federal staff within the nation.) “I have done more than Elon Musk has done tweeting while on Air Force One with the president.”
Finally, Trump and Musk’s decimation of the federal workforce might have damaging impacts on the financial system, in line with specialists, because the federal authorities is the largest employer in the US.
“The economic consequences of layoffs are like a domino effect that spread across local economies to businesses that seem to have no connection whatsoever to the federal government,” Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics on the Yale College Funds Lab, advised CNBC, including that these layoffs are one of many many issues Trump is doing that might harm the U.S. financial system.
“This was a healthy economy coming into 2025,” Tedeschi mentioned. “And suddenly we have a number of serious potential headwinds that are stacking up. And this is one of them.”
