Elon Musk addressed concerns over last week’s controversial federal worker productivity email, insisting the directive was not a performance review but a basic check for signs of life.
” I believe that contact was intended to be a performance assessment, but in reality it was a signal check review. Do you have a pulse”? Musk said during a Cabinet conference Wednesday. ” And if you have a pulse and two cells, you could email to an email”.
The demand, sent in cooperation with the Office of Personnel Management, asked over 1 million federal employees to send a bullet-point record of their regular job accomplishments. Musk argued that the training was a required step in the investigation of possible fraud on the government’s pay.
However, we are trying to find the middle of the matter because we believe there are a number of dying on the government payroll, which is likely why they can’t act,” Musk said. And some “real folks” appear to be working for a living. Also, someone is collecting payments on a imaginary individual”.
Musk, who is a special assistant to President Trump, tied the effort to his wider goal of reducing government waste.
Musk remarked,” We simply cannot support a state on$ 2 trillion imbalances,” pointing out that the US spends more on interest payments than the Department of Defense. ” If this continues, the state will go bankrupt. It’s not an additional thing”.
Despite acknowledging the intense scrutiny he has faced, Musk remained convinced that DOGE—the Department of Government Efficiency—could accomplish$ 1 trillion in savings.
” We do need to walk quickly”, Musk said. ” Spending$ 4 billion per day every day from now until the end of September is necessary to reduce our deficit by$ 1 trillion in fiscal year 2026,” states the report. However, we may accomplish it. And we will do it”.
