The Washington swamp has been growing deeper and murkier for decades. Career bureaucrats have built empires within federal agencies. They’ve expanded their budgets.

They’ve created endless regulations. All while taxpayers foot the bill with little to show for it.

President Trump promised to change that. He vowed to bring business-minded efficiency to government. He’s now unleashed a powerful ally in that fight.

The resistance they’re facing shows just how entrenched the problem really is.

The battle lines were drawn when the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal employees. The subject line was simple: “What did you do last week?” The message asked workers to list five bullet points of their accomplishments. The consequence for not responding? Potential termination.

Several agencies immediately pushed back. The Department of Defense told employees to ignore it.

The FBI did the same. Isn’t it telling that simply asking what someone accomplished is considered controversial in Washington?

Musk didn’t hide his frustration. He took to X just hours before the Monday night deadline. His message was clear.

From Fox News:

Billionaire Elon Musk, who’s slashing wasteful government spending with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said federal workers who fail to respond to his productivity email may be given another chance, but warned if they fail to respond a second time, they’ll be terminated…

“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. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”

A Second Chance with Serious Consequences

After the initial resistance, Musk clarified his position. Federal workers who failed to respond would get another opportunity.

But his warning couldn’t be clearer: “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”

We’ve seen this playbook before. When Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he asked then-CEO Parag Agrawal what he had accomplished that week. Musk later noted bluntly, “Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired.”

The parallels are striking. Musk applies the same standards everywhere. Accountability matters. Results matter. Your title or tenure doesn’t exempt you from basic performance expectations.

President Trump has fully endorsed this approach. “I thought it was great,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “There was a lot of genius in sending it. If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working.”

Let me tell you, this is exactly what Americans have been waiting for. Someone finally asking the basic questions we’ve wanted answered for years.

Resistance from the Bureaucracy

Of course the bureaucrats pushed back—accountability is kryptonite to the swamp. The Justice Department told employees they didn’t need to respond “due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the Department’s work.” Similar guidance came from the State Department. The National Institutes of Health joined in. So did the National Security Agency.

The resistance has gone beyond agency directives. A coalition of unions amended their lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management. They claim the effort was unlawful. They say it didn’t follow proper procedures.

When was the last time you could refuse to tell your boss what you accomplished and keep your job?

House Speaker Mike Johnson praised Musk’s work. “Elon has cracked the code. He is now inside the agencies. He’s created these algorithms that are constantly crawling through the data. And as he told me in his office, the data doesn’t lie.”

Despite the pushback, Musk and Trump appear determined. They will continue streamlining government operations. They will cut wasteful spending. They will demand results for American taxpayers.

Key Takeaways:

• Federal employees who ignored Musk’s productivity email will get one more chance before facing termination.
• President Trump praised the initiative as “genius” and suggested non-responders might not actually be working.
• The initiative has faced significant resistance from federal agencies and unions who claim the effort is unlawful.

Sources: Fox News, Fortune, NBC News