Elon Musk, a tech billionaire, appears to be managing the Department of Government Efficiency with “his plate full.”
The owner of Space X and Tesla announced slashing almost $2 trillion in government spending when he was named head of DOGE. His most recent step toward achieving this aim is asking stuffers to send a brief email outlining their accomplishments over the previous week.
The deadline for federal employees to reply to the request was February 24. Musk also stated in his X post that “not responding will be interpreted as a resignation.”
According to a source, the Department of Justice cautioned the receivers of the email not to reply “because of the sensitive and confidential nature of the Department’s work.”
The Department of Defense was among several other departments that followed suit. FBI Director Kash Patel issued a similar direction to his staff.
Senator Tina Smith, a Democrat, criticized Elon Musk for making this request to the approximately 2.4 million federal employees.
Senator Smith shared a screenshot of Musk’s email on X, a social networking platform that Musk owns, writing: “This is the ultimate d**k boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a d**k.”
She continued in a another post: “I’m sure many people have experienced something similar with a bad boss—you get an email in your inbox on Saturday night that says, ‘Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else.'” Instead of the millionaire a**hole bosses, I support the workers.
What did you get done last week?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
Musk wrote, “What did you get done last week?” in response to Smith’s article.
Smith responded, saying, “@ElonMusk You are not my boss, as much as I would like to tell you. The people of Minnesota are my bosses.
However, since you bring it up, I fought last week to oppose tax incentives for billionaires like you, which were funded by cutting off funds for maternal and pediatric health care.
Musk claims that some staff members have already replied to his email before the due date.
Smith was joined by Senator Patty Murray in criticizing Musk. Murray posted on X, “Spending isn’t a ‘conspiracy’ just because Musk doesn’t understand //usaspending.gov.” “Just because a program doesn’t benefit the wealthiest guy in the planet doesn’t mean it’s a waste. Since he dislikes it, it isn’t fraud. The mere fact that he disagrees with a law does not make it unlawful.
Musk justified his behavior by referring to it as “a very basic pulse check.”