Elon’s Email Demand Is Being Met With ‘Very Rude’ Flood of Spam After Musk told federal employees to list five accomplishments or be fired, internet users are encouraging people to flood the email with spam

 

President Donald Trump has let tech billionaire Elon Musk run rampant through government agencies, instituting mass firings and structurally destabilizing teams in the Federal Aviation Association, the Forest Service, and the Department of Veteran Affairs, among others.

Musk’s latest attempt to gut the federal workforce through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) isn’t going so well — and it has left his detractors desperate to make his life harder by sending spam emails.

On Saturday afternoon, Musk tweeted that he would be requiring all federal employees to reply to an email with a rundown of their accomplishments for the week. “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” The actual email that ended up in employees’ inboxes differed slightly, reading: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc: your manager. Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is Monday at 11:59pmEST.”

Trump praised Musk’s efforts during a meeting with French President Emmanual Macron on Monday, claiming without evidence that the request would weed out fraud in the system. “There was a lot of genius in sending it,” Trump said. “We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people: Please tell us what you did last week. If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working.”

Rolling Stone obtained a copy of the email sent by HR at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). But after the email was leaked on X, anti-Musk posters began encouraging non-government employees to also send their answers to Elon — with a majority taking hard and profanity-laced aim at Musk. 

Online, people participating in the trend have both sent their own versions of emails or drafted different examples they would send if they were federal employees. But they’re not the only ones. Two sources familiar with the matter, including a Trump administration official, told Rolling Stone that the replies to the recent Musk OPM email have been flooded with pranks and, in the words of the Trump official, “very rude” emails listing fake, vulgar “accomplishments,” and even sending links to graphic images of sex and scatological content.

It’s unclear what decisions will be made based on the responses to Musk. On Monday afternoon, OPM informed agency leaders that responding to the email was “voluntary,” according to The Hill. But the trend that is emerging is highlighting an ongoing disdain for Musk’s policies, constant spreading of misinformation, and clear and present desire for people to think he’s cool. Let’s hope he doesn’t have good email filters.

 Elon Musk, President Donald Trump's point person to root out what he says is government waste, on Monday renewed his threat to fire federal workers who do not comply with his demand to justify their jobs, even after the Trump administration said workers did not have to respond.

The U.S. agency that oversees federal employees said on Monday they could ignore a weekend email from Musk that required them to summarize their work or face losing their jobs. The directive sparked widespread confusion across the federal government and raised questions about how much actual authority Musk, the world's richest man, possesses within the administration.

As the deadline for response grew near on Monday, Musk, whom Trump appointed to head up a newly named Department of Government Efficiency that Trump has tasked to radically downsize the government, seemed to acknowledge that his plan had run aground.

"The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!" Musk posted on X, the social media site he owns. "Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers."

Musk went on to say, "Subject to the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Musk's remarks.

It was unclear whether Musk was aware of the guidance the U.S. Office of Personnel Management released earlier on Monday telling human resources officials at federal agencies that employees would not be let go for not replying to Musk's email - nor were staff required to respond to it.

The memo said responding to the email was voluntary. It also urged employees not to share confidential, sensitive, or classified information in their responses, a concern of critics of Musk's action.

Even after that guidance was issued, some agencies nudged their employees to respond.

A senior manager at the General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings, told employees that the agency was still encouraging workers to answer the email even if it was voluntary, according to a GSA source.

Similarly, the acting director of OPM itself sent an email to the agency's staff that said responding with bullet points was voluntary “but strongly encouraged."

RESISTANCE TO MUSK'S ORDER

The Department of Health and Human Services advised employees that if they chose to reply, they should keep their responses general in nature and that they should refrain from identifying specific drugs or contracts they are working on, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.

“Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly,” the email said.

Musk's downsizing initiative, known as DOGE, has rippled into the wider U.S. economy as well, forcing companies that do business with the government to lay off workers and defer payments to vendors.

Musk's Saturday message took some administration officials by surprise, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

Elon Musk listens to U.S. President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Adding to the confusion, Trump stood by Musk. "I thought it was great," he told reporters at the White House earlier on Monday. "There was a lot of genius in sending it. We're trying to find out if people were working."

In another Monday action, a federal judge blocked the government downsizing team created by Trump and led by Musk from accessing sensitive data maintained by the U.S. Education Department and the OPM.

Unlike Cabinet appointees and appointees to head up independent federal agencies, Musk's appointment required no approval by the U.S. Senate.

UNIONS SUE OVER MUSK EMAIL

Also on Monday, a group of labor unions that have asked a federal judge to stop the mass firings updated their lawsuit to request that Musk's email be ruled illegal.

Before the OPM directive, senior officials at the Department of Justice, as well as the Departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security, and several other agencies had told workers not to respond outside their established chain of command.

The Transportation Department, the Treasury Department, and independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have told employees to answer Musk's message.

Musk has reveled in the upheaval, even wielding a chainsaw at a conservative political conference last week.

In addition, his email was sent to political appointees at the White House who presumably would not be viewed with suspicion by the president, according to two sources.

It also was sent to federal judges and other employees of the court system, who make up a separate branch of government and do not answer to the administration.

More than 20,000 workers have been laid off as part of the downsizing effort.

DOWNSIZING, REHIRING

The confusion echoed the broader turmoil surrounding Trump's return to power.

Since taking office on January 20, Trump has frozen billions of dollars in foreign assistance and effectively dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers some 60% of U.S. foreign assistance, stranding medicine and food in warehouses.

Trump has ordered employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to cease working, though they also received Musk's email asking that they outline their work activities over the past week. The Trump administration has separately offered buyouts to 75,000 workers.

In some cases, the government has scrambled to rehire workers who perform critical functions like nuclear weapons oversight and bird flu response. The downsizing has prompted a wave of lawsuits.