‘Illegal’: Elon Musk faces backlash after he asks Federal workers to ‘justify work’ by Monday | 10 updates

Elon Musk, billionaire advisor to Donald Trump, stated on Saturday that all US federal employees must justify their work or face losing their jobs, following the president’s push for more aggressive cuts to government spending. Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s largest donor, has spearheaded efforts to reduce the size of the government workforce.

Here are the top ten updates:

1. “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,” Musk wrote. According to a copy of the email provided to AFP, federal workers were asked to submit “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”

Also Read: ‘I’m on the side of workers’: Senator Tina Smith on weekly word from Fed workers; Elon Musk reacts, ‘What did you do?’

2, The email came from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), with the subject line “What did you do last week?”. The deadline to reply was 11:59 pm Monday, though the message did not say failure to do so would lead to termination.

4. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, pledged to challenge any unlawful terminations in a statement from national president Everett Kelley. Kelley criticized Musk and the Trump administration, asserting that the move demonstrated “their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”

Also Read: ‘Parag was fired’: Elon Musk reacts to comparison of Agrawal and Federal worker mandate amid ‘report or resign’ order

5. As reported by AP, AFGE President Everett Kelley called the new order an example of Trump and Musk’s “utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”

6. “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,” Kelley said. “AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”

7. Republican Gerry Connolly said that the “threat” issued by Elon Musk to federal workers is “illegal”. In a post on X, he said, “The threat issued by Elon Musk to federal workers today is illegal, reckless, and yet another example of the cruel and arbitrary chaos he is inflicting on the people’s government. This is a clear attempt to force the departure of civil servants who resoundingly refused to take the bait on the scam ‘deferred resignation’ offer.”

Also Read: ‘When Trump, Modi talk, they are called threat to democracy’: Italy PM Giorgia Meloni says, ‘people keep voting for us’

8. A user Richard Hanania said, “Only 6% of federal employees are working full time in the office. In August, the Biden administration asked them to return to work. A union representative responds that government workers are heroes and they don’t have to show up if they don’t want to.”

9. Earlier Saturday, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Musk was “doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive.” “Remember, we have a country to save,” the Republican leader added, as reported by AFP.

10. In the latest cuts announced Friday, the US Defense Department is to reduce its civilian workforce by at least five percent starting next week. Trump’s administration has already begun firing many other federal workers who are on probationary status. Trump has put the tech entrepreneur in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory body, tasking him with slashing public spending and tackling alleged waste and corruption.

(With inputs from agencies)