Elon Musk attacked an official in the Department of Defense who dared to criticize his ultimatum ordering federal workers to detail their work accomplishments or face losing their jobs.
Things popped off after a government-wide email asking federal employees to provide a detailed breakdown of what they’d done over the past week was sent out on Saturday by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The message had been teased ahead of time in an X post from Musk, who wrote that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
The message came as Musk and his team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continue to ramp up their ongoing crusade against federal spending, with at least 20,000 government workers fired since Donald Trump took office last month.
The Pentagon, for one, was having none of it, instructing its employees to not reply to the email, with one senior Pentagon official describing it to CNN as “the silliest thing I’ve seen in 40 years.”
That remark has clearly gotten under Musk’s skin. “Anyone with the attitude of that Pentagon official needs to look for a new job,” he responded in a typically late-night post on Sunday.
But the Department of Defense isn’t alone in shrugging off the latest DOGE directive.
Personnel at the Department of Homeland Security were also told not to respond for the time being, while the Department of Health and Human Services has suggested employees hit “pause” on replying while leadership tries to work out how best to manage the request.
Others urging staff not to message back included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Internal Revenue Service. Even recent Trump appointees Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard took the time to reassure intelligence officials they were under no obligation to respond.
Senior Democratic Party figures have also hit out, demanding that the OPM clarify Musk’s threat of dismissal is neither binding nor enforceable as it pertains to the agency’s demands for recent employee performance data.
“The capricious dismissal threatened in Mr. Musk’s post is illegal and cannot be tolerated,” Virginia Congressman and House Oversight Committee member Gerry Connolly wrote in a letter to OPM on Sunday, further describing Musk’s post as “an insult to federal workers.”
