Hours after President Donald Trump urged him to be “more aggressive” in cutting government expenditure, Elon Musk declared that all federal employees in the United States must defend their work or risk losing their jobs, reports RTE.
The drive to dismiss large portions of the government workers has been spearheaded by Mr. Musk, the richest person in the world and the largest donor to Mr. Trump.
“An email asking all government employees to comprehend what they completed last week will be sent to them shortly. It will be seen as a resignation if you don’t reply,” Mr. Musk wrote, reports RTE.
A copy of the email that was sent to AFP states that government employees were requested to produce “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”
“What did you do last week?” was the subject line of the email, which was sent by the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Although it was not stated in the notification that failing to respond would result in termination, the deadline for responding was 11.59 p.m. tomorrow, reports RTE.
In a statement, national president Everett Kelley said that the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), will contest any wrongful terminations.
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According to Mr. Kelley, the action demonstrated “their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.” He also criticised Mr. Musk and the Trump administration.
“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” he said, reports RTE.
A number of federal workers told AFP that their agencies had ordered them to wait for more instructions and not reply to the email. The National Treasury Employees Union also reiterated this advice.
“More hostile”
On the Truth Social platform, Mr. Trump stated that Musk was “doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” reports RTE.
“Remember, we have a country to save,” the Republican leader went on to say.
In order to cut public expenditure and address alleged waste and corruption, Mr. Trump appointed the internet entrepreneur to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory group, reports RTE.
As part of the latest cuts announced Friday, the US Defence Department will reduce its civilian workforce by at least 5% starting next week.
“Elon is doing a great job,” Mr. Trump remarked yesterday while presenting a list of “some of the flagrant scams” that had been exposed to a gathering of conservative activists, reports RTE.
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