Elon Musk’s monthlong rampage through the federal bureaucracy appears to have met its first real test, as some of President Trump’s top loyalists flatly reject the billionaire’s demand that their employees justify their jobs or be summarily fired.
By Monday, just 48 hours after an email from Mr. Musk with the subject line “What did you do last week?” landed in the email boxes of millions of federal workers, personnel officials proclaimed the “request” to be voluntary even as Mr. Musk renewed his demand.
For the first time since the beginning of Mr. Trump’s return to power, government employees appeared to be fending off, at least for now, an ambush in their war with the world’s richest man. Even if the head-spinning series of events — contradictory tweets from Mr. Musk, comments from the president and emails from agency heads — left many of them confused.
After Mr. Musk’s email, several agencies quickly sent out emails telling their employees they did not need to provide the five bullet points about their activity that he wanted. » | Michael D. Shear and Kate Conger | Michael D. Shear reported from Washington, and Kate Conger from San Francisco. | Monday, February 24, 2025
Who does this arrogant, one-time, allegedly undocumented immigrant to the USA think he is telling American-born employees what they should do, and need to do, to be able to keep their employment?! It seems clear to me that this man’s wings need to be clipped – and with despatch! – © Mark Alexander
