U.S. President Trump posted on his social platform on the 23rd local time the "weekly report" submitted to him by Musk, the head of the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE). According to Trump’s post, Musk’s “weekly report” includes:
1. Simplified the archiving process and shortened retrieval time by 20%; 2. Presented a confidential project to senior officials and obtained approval; 3. Debugging eliminates internal database failures that cause slow query speed; 4. Drafted a memorandum and launched a new interdepartmental initiative; 5. A discreet security audit was conducted, flagging three overlooked risks.
On February 23, Trump posted a picture with the caption "From Elon...". Image source: Post on Trump’s social platform
Musk then took a screenshot of Trump's post on social platform X and explained that the content was "fictionalized" by his artificial intelligence model Grok3. He also said, "The response standard required by DOGE is actually so low. It is very disturbing that some departments in the government think this is too much! What is wrong with them?"
On February 23, Musk took a screenshot of Trump’s post and said, “The requirements for DOGE are actually that low.” Source: Musk’s social platform post
According to the Associated Press report on the 23rd, on the 22nd local time, Musk posted on social media The sender of the email is the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the response deadline is set at 23:59 on the 24th.
Many U.S. government departments remind employees: Don’t reply yet
On February 23, local time, U.S. State Department officials told their employees not to immediately respond to an email from Musk, the head of the U.S. Government Effectiveness Department, "listing the work completed in the past week."
On the same day, the U.S. Department of Defense also issued a statement stating that the Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures. If necessary, DoD will coordinate emails received by employees. For now, the Department of Defense is asking employees to suspend any responses to the email.
On the 22nd local time, FBI Director Kash Patel urged his employees not to respond to emails sent by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to federal government workers for the time being.
On February 23, local time, the National Federation of Federal Employees said that the Trump administration’s emails asking federal employees to explain what they were doing were “illegal” and recommended that employees forward the emails to their immediate supervisors and seek instructions. The union said they would provide further guidance on the 24th.
On the 23rd local time, Gerry Connolly, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, said that Musk’s threat to fire government employees is illegal.
It is reported that Connolly urged the Trump administration to clarify the following content: The email "completed the work content last week" does not constitute a formal order from the White House Personnel Management Office; Musk's statement that "employees who do not respond to the email will be deemed to have resigned" is invalid.