More than 1 million federal workers respond to Musk’s DOGE email demanding to know what they did last week

WASHINGTON — More than 1 million federal staffers, less than half the government’s work force, have responded to Elon Musk’s demand to come up with five things they accomplished on the job last week, the White House says.

Musk emailed his edict to federal workers Saturday and gave them a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday to answer, then warned on X that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation” — only to walk back his threat a bit later as confusion reigned and offer the staffers a second chance.

“I can announce that we’ve had more than 1 million workers who have chosen to participate in this very simple task of, again, sending five bullet points to your direct supervisor or manager,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.

That figure is still less than half the federal work force of more than 2.4 million people, excluding active-duty military and Postal Service employees, according to Trump administration data.

Musk issued his directive after President Trump told the Department of Government Efficiency head to be “more aggressive” in his efforts to upend the federal government.

The “idea” to send federal workers the email came from the billionaire boss of SpaceX and Tesla, Leavitt said — noting agency heads are ultimately responsible for deciding if their employees should send their lists on to DOGE.

Musk is expected to attend Trump’s first cabinet meeting Wednesday — but Leavitt stressed that the only department secretaries are ultimately in charge of firing workers. Musk’s DOGE is not an official government department.

After Musk’s tweet threatening to fire workers who did not comply with his email, several agency heads quickly told their employees not to respond to the order, partly because of national security concerns.

Officials at the Office of Personnel Management then sent out an email Monday instructing workers that the Musk directive was “voluntary” and that not replying would not mean getting fired.

But while Musk followed up by claiming federal workers would be given a “second chance” to respond, he said he that would be it for leniency.

“The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!” the world’s richest man wrote sarcastically on X. “Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers.

“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” he continued in another post. “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.” 

The Musk missives created confusion for federal workers who were uncertain whether to follow through with the demand coming from Trump’s righthand man or from their bosses.

Trump defended Musk asking federal workers to send their five accomplishments, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, “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.

“What he’s doing is saying ‘Are you actually working?’ ” the president said.

Leavitt also stood by Musk’s instructions, saying she herself sent along five points about what she did in the press office.

“I do five things in about 10 minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working and moving. We have a country to save, and we want this federal government to be responsive to the needs of the American people,” Leavitt said.