As a part of his acquisition of Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk referred to as on the social media large’s CEO to element what he achieved throughout the work week – years earlier than he employed the identical tactic on federal staff whereas serving in his capability as chair of the Division of Authorities Effectivity beneath the Trump administration.
Musk roiled the federal workforce on Saturday when he posted to X that staff would want to listing their accomplishments for the earlier week or danger dropping their jobs.
However this is not the primary time Musk has used the tactic: He did the identical amid his buy of Twitter in 2022, earlier than he overhauled the social media behemoth, together with axing high brass.
“What did you get done this week,” Musk had texted former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in April 2022, months earlier than he bought Twitter and in the end renamed it X.
Musk helped resurrect the textual content alternate over the weekend on X, when he responded to an account that shared a “how it started, how it’s going” submit that confirmed a screenshot of Musk’s textual content to Agrawal, accompanied by a display shot of a Musk X submit on Saturday directed at federal staff.
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote on X on Saturday. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
“To be clear, the bar is very low here,” Musk wrote. “An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write.”
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Musk, who positioned himself as “free speech absolutist” amid the Twitter buy, purchased the social media platform in 2022 after it got here beneath fireplace from conservatives and free speech advocates for censoring conservative viewpoints.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022. (Joe Skipper/Carlos Barria/Reuters)
The tech large had “permanently” banned former President Donald Trump from the platform in 2021, drawing ire from conservatives and free speech advocates. It additionally blocked the New York Publish’s 2020 story on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop computer – and suspended some conservative accounts from the location, akin to satire web site Babylon Bee in 2022 after it awarded transgender Biden administration official Rachel Levine a fictitious “Man of the Year” award.
Musk’s textual content to the then-Twitter CEO asking what he achieved for the week got here as the 2 sparred over Musk’s important messages aimed on the social media platform, together with asking publicly that yr, “Is Twitter dying?” The textual content messages had been revealed in court docket paperwork launched in 2022.
Months later, in October 2022, Musk formally acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal, making waves when he entered its headquarters that month carrying a rest room sink in a video he posted to X with the caption, “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”
Musk went on to fireside the social media firm’s high executives, together with Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and common counsel Vijaya Gadde. Musk defined on X lately that Agrawal was fired attributable to reported productiveness points.
“Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired,” he posted to X on Saturday.
Elon Musk and protesters in opposition to DOGE and its work auditing varied federal businesses. (Getty Photos)
All in, roughly 70% to 80% of Twitter’s approximate 8,000 staff had been fired or exited the corporate following Musk’s buy. Musk took a hatchet to the corporate’s do business from home coverage, and remarked that the corporate was overstaffed and wanted to be trimmed of staffers who didn’t contribute a lot to its operations.
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“We just had a situation at Twitter where it was absurdly overstaffed,” Musk stated on Fox Information in 2023. “Turns out you don’t need all that many people to run Twitter.”
Demonstrators collect for the “No Kings on President’s Day” protest in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 17, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey/Fox Information Digital)
“If you’re not trying to run some sort of glorified activist organization and you don’t care that much about censorship, then you can really let go of a lot of people, turns out,” he stated on the time.
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Musk’s feedback mirror these he’s made within the second Trump administration because the chair of DOGE, which is within the midst of auditing varied federal businesses within the seek for overspending, corruption and mismanagement.
DOGE’s work comes as President Donald Trump ordered the federal workforce to return to the workplace after 5 years of distant work stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, and has vowed to scrub home of unhealthy actors throughout the authorities and ax overspending.
President Donald Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk sit down for a “Hannity” unique interview. (Fox Information)
Musk stated on Saturday that federal staff would obtain an e mail directing them to listing their accomplishments from the week prior, with the DOGE chief including later that day that the project ought to take lower than 5 minutes to perform.
Workers have till 11:59 pm on Monday to ship the listing or lose their employment, in accordance with emails concerning Musk’s directive that had been despatched by the Workplace of Personnel Administration.
Musk’s message adopted Trump remarking that he has been happy with Musk and DOGE’s work investigating varied federal businesses for presidency overspending, fraud and mismanagement, however that he wish to see Musk “get more aggressive.”
Musk responded on X: “Will do, Mr. President!”
ELON MUSK SAYS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES MUST FILL OUT PRODUCTIVITY REPORTS OR RESIGN
Demonstrators protest Elon Musk on Feb. 22, 2025, in Seattle, Washington. (David Ryder/Getty Photos)
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Some Democratic lawmakers, unions and activists have referred to as for federal staff to buck the order, whereas a handful of presidency departments and businesses, such because the FBI and Division of Protection, informed employees to carry off on responding to the e-mail, as respective officers will deal with auditing their very own staffers.
“This is a good opportunity for mass civil disobedience. Musk has no authority to do this,” Illinois Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, for instance, posted to X on Saturday night. “Encourage all federal employees to report to work, prepare GFY letters and continue to demonstrate the public service and patriotism he lacks.” The acronym GFY is web slang sometimes which means “go f— yourself.”
“It takes a remarkable combination of arrogance and stupidity to think that this is the best use of time for our intelligence officers, VA workers, air traffic controllers, and everyone else we depend on to do their job well,” he continued.
