Elon Musk continues to cause chaos for federal employees by issuing a second ultimatum on the back of his controversial email.
Alongside enforcing the President’s return-to-office mandates, Musk sent an email to federal workers on February 22, requiring them to justify their roles. The workers were to list five completed tasks from the past week before the deadline of February 24 at 11:59 pm EST - or face termination.
On Saturday (February 22), the Tesla CEO sent a government-wide email to all employees warning that those who failed to respond would no longer have a job to return to. Musk later admitted that the email was a test to see which employees 'had a pulse,' suggesting that those who ignored it lacked basic competence.
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"This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email," the 53-year-old continued. "This mess will get sorted out this week. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality.
"They don't get it yet, but they will."
Musk then doubled down on his stance, posting on X that the failure to reply was a waste of taxpayer money.
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"The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers," he argued. "Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?"
Now, he’s giving those who ignored the first email one more chance, writing on X: "Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance.
"Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."
Understandably, the callouts weren't received well by everyone.
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One senior Defense Department official told CNN that it was the 'silliest' thing they'd ever seen in their career.
Meanwhile, the new FBI director Kash Patel reportedly advised employees not to respond to the emails - which led to confusion within multiple agencies.
"The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses," his message read. For now, please pause any responses."
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To make matters worse, Donald Trump agreed with the aggressive approach, warning that employees who did not respond would be 'semi-fired' or 'fired.'
The President added on his social media platform, Truth Social: "A lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”