Featured Image Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Topics: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, US News, News, Politics
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, US News, News, Politics
Karoline Leavitt - the White House Press Secretary - has revealed she fired off an email listing everything she'd achieved last week, as per a controversial request made by Elon Musk.
The tech boss sparked backlash by sending an ultimatum to federal workers in several departments threatening people's jobs.
Staff from the likes of the State Department, the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Veterans Affairs Department all received an email on Sunday , ordering them to comply within 48 hours or risk being let go.
Advert
The cryptic message was titled 'HR' and the subject line read: "What did you do last week?"
Musk's email then continued: "Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager."
Staff were asked not to include links, attachments or classified information, and given a deadline to send over the information by 11.59pm on Monday.
Writing on X, the Tesla CEO explained: "Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
The request comes following Musk's appointment as one of 78-year-old Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-leads, after which he described cuts to government funding as 'common sense' measures in a White House speech.
Though a handful of agency heads reportedly warned their employees not to reply to Musk's email, Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt has emphasised the opposite message.
The 27-year-old revealed on Tuesday that she'd abided by Musk's request, and her fired off an email to Taylor Budowich - a political consultant and the current White House Deputy Chief of Staff. A screengrab of the email was subsequently shared online.
"Hello Taylor," Leavitt begins in the message. "In an effort of transparency and accountability, I am pleased to inform you of 5 tasks that I completed last week, though the list of everything that I completed is much longer.
"See below."
She then includes a bullet point run-down of her weekly duties:
Leavitt then added: "P.S. I am so grateful to have a job and work hard on behalf of the American taxpayers, who fund my salary.
"This email took me 2 minutes to draft. Thank you."
Speaking about her email in a press conference yesterday, Leavitt explained: "All federal workers should we working at the same pace that President Trump is working and moving.
"We have a country to save, and we want this federal government to be responsive to the needs of the American people who re-elected this president to have historic, massive reform."
As per ABC News, she continued: "And that's what the intention of this idea is."