‘Genius’ move: Trump praises Musk’s justify-your-job order to federal workers

Washington: US President Donald Trump has defended billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s efforts to force federal workers to justify their roles and productivity or be fired, casting it as a legitimate bid to root out fraud and waste in government.

“I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows that they work for the government,” Trump said on Monday at a meeting with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron. “There was a lot of genius in sending it.”

Trump’s remarks followed a chaotic weekend in which he urged Musk, who heads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known commonly as DOGE, to be “more aggressive” in cutting costs. Musk responded by having the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) email more than 2 million federal workers asking them to submit five bullet points explaining what they accomplished in their jobs over the last week.

The directive, however, quickly met resistance across several agencies where Trump-appointed and Senate-confirmed officials are now in place. The Defence, State and Homeland Security departments told workers to disregard the email or wait for further instructions, as did the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Homeland Security told employees it would reply to OPM on their behalf.

On Tuesday (AEDT), the US Office of Personnel Management told HR officials that employees would not be let go for not replying to an email asking what they did last week, nor did staff have to respond to the email, the Washington Post reported.

Trump downplayed the disconnect, saying agencies were simply concerned about “confidential things” being revealed in the emails, rather than pushing back on the broader accountability effort. The email to employees warned not to include classified information in their response.

Musk’s increasingly drastic efforts to pressure the federal workforce as part of DOGE’s broad push to scale back the size of the US government have drawn protests from employee unions, Democrats in Congress, and even constituents in Republican-leaning districts.

One veteran in East Texas told Republican Congressman Pete Sessions he supported eliminating excessive spending, but criticised Musk’s handling of the matter.

“The guy in South Africa is not doing you any good – he’s hurting you more than he’s helping,” the man told Sessions at a community meeting, drawing applause, The New York Times reported. Musk was born in South Africa.

Musk’s productivity report mandate marked the first significant pushback from within the ranks of Trump allies running the government.

Musk, the largest donor to Trump’s election campaign last year, has demonstrated he wields considerable access to the Oval Office during the president’s first month back in the White House. In shielding Musk’s work from legal challenges, the government has said he’s only an adviser with no direct authority.

Still, Musk’s hand has been evident. An earlier email asking employees to volunteer for a deferred resignation program had the subject “A fork in the road” – the same metaphor Musk used to downsize at Twitter, the social media site he has since rebranded as X. The subject of the weekend email was “What did you do last week?” – a frequent question he asks executives at his private companies.

Musk has also threatened federal employees with suspension if they don’t return to the office this week after four years of COVID-era work-from-home policies.

Bloomberg, Reuters with staff reporter

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