Elon Musk has come under fire by posting his version of events after more than 20 civil service employees resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known a DOGE, in a single day.
The newly established DOGE, with Elon Musk at its head, has dominated much of the first month of Donald Trump's return to US presidency, as it has been the driving force behind many of the high-profile federal cuts that have been made.
Having initially pledged a staggering figure of $2,000,000,000,000 to be cut from the federal budget, Musk's DOGE has targeted a number of key US government departments in an effort to 'save' money by any means and make the country more 'efficient'.
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This has affected departments such as Veteran Affairs, Defense, Health, and Human Services, alongside National Parks which have been the site of protests in recent days.
While Musk recently was criticized for sending a potentially illegal government-wide email asking over 100,000 federal employees to explain what they did in the last week or risk being fired, he's been on the receiving end of resignations within his own camp.
Over 20 civil service staff that were redeployed to the Department of Government Efficiency all resigned on the same day, releasing a letter explaining their actions to the public.
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"We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations," the letter reads. "However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments."
Much has been said about Elon Musk's relatively young DOGE workforce, which include 'prodigy' Luke Farritor, and Musk himself revealed that key staff within the advisory agency have been working 120-hour weeks across all seven days, to the point where they require sleep pods within the office.
Musk, however, pushed back against the mass resignation, offering a 'brutal' response on X to the news:
"More fake news from Associated Propaganda," Musk claimed in reply to a post from The Associated Press. "These were Dem political holdovers who refused to return to the office. They would have been fired had they not resigned."
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While it is true that many of those that resigned joined the government during the Obama administration, Musk's statement doesn't address the nature of their resignation and what it means for staffers that likely continued to work throughout Trump's first term as president.
This has led to major backlash on social media, with one user breaking down the issues with Musk's 'fiery' statement:
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"1: Cries fake news but doesn't disprove any claims (does not deny their resignation or their reasoning). 2: Claims his own department had holdovers when it was created recently. 3: Reinforces that it's not fake by confirming that they quit."
Another added: "That's called resigning. See, cause they resigned against your dumb policy, and in protest to what you said, they don't want to work for you, so they resigned."
Given the gung-ho nature of DOGE's cuts already some are questioning why, if Musk's claims that they would have been 'fired anyway', this hadn't already happened.
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"Unless it fits your narrative, you lie," argues one reply. "'Dem political holdovers' & 'would have been fired'. You have no authority and you're the captain of a sinking ship."
While White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has dismissed concerns over the mass resignation, claiming that anyone who thinks that this would bother Trump has been "sleeping under a rock," it does raise worries among many that Musk is 'losing control' of his governmental pet project.