Showdown -The Cabinet Versus Musk Over the Email Ultimatum

Confusion about whether to respond to the email was still abounding as the deadline of Monday 11:59 p.m. ET approached.

Musk first announced the emails on Friday at 2:46 p.m. ET, saying that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

You have just received this email from Elon Musk.

Please reply below …
pic.twitter.com/Qty1MKFDdm

— Muntu87 (@Muntu87) February 23, 2025

Musk posted on X:

Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’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 also prompted confusion after some supervisors at some agencies, including at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services, told their employees not to respond immediately to the email.

There was even more confusion after some top officials at some agencies told employees not to respond. Including the State Department and the FBI.

President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed an email sent by Elon Musk via the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to federal workers on Friday afternoon asking them to reply with five bullets of what they accomplished last week.

“I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government. So by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week?’ What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’ And then, if you don’t answer, like you’re sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist,” Trump said during a press conference.

H/T: Breitbart

Let’s not confuse cutting waste fraud and abuse from dealing with 3 million federal employees. When the dust settles, and Musk gets finished slashing and burning, there will still be millions of people that will be needed to run the government.

How you treat people does matter. As the excitement grows over the purge, let us not forget that these are people that have real lives, and threatening to throw them out of a job may not be the best method of encouraging the work force to be productive.

Especially I think about the thousands who are on probation for jobs that they thought they had. Giving up their previous positions that paid the food and rent, maybe moving the family, and now treated in a cavalier way of “your fired.”

This wasn’t the President who sent out the letter on Friday. It was Musk. Now Trump comes to the rescue and says it’s a great idea. Maybe it is. I have my doubts that it will make Wharton’s management class in Human Resources.

I was glad to see the State and FBI departments inform their employees not to comply. Hegseth and Patel are wise enough to know they will have to count on these same people to want to continue to do their best in their work performance. This is not how to get it. If there was to be a letter, it needed to come from the department leadership. It did not need to be a three day demand letter. People could be simply on vacation. If the department is to have layoffs, it needs to come from the departments. Not Musk.

More concerning is that we learn apparently that Musk did not clear the ultimatum with Trump ahead of time.While we appreciate all that Musk has done in righting the ship, he would be wise to consider the human factor. Stealing money from the government, and fostering the idea that all federal employees are drones, are two separate matters.

Musk risks a major backlash anyway with deep cuts to popular programs such as access to the National Parks and Recreational areas. He would be wise to consult with others regarding the fallout of his decisions.

The best of the swamp.

Source: https://bunkerville.wordpress.com/2025/02/25/showdown-the-cabinet-versus-musk-over-the-email-ultimatum/