Elon Musk addressed issues over final week’s controversial federal employee productiveness e mail, insisting the directive was not a efficiency evaluate however a fundamental verify for indicators of life.
“I feel that e mail was maybe interpreted as a efficiency evaluate, however really it was a pulse verify evaluate. Do you may have a pulse?” Musk mentioned throughout a Cupboard assembly Wednesday. “And in case you have a pulse and two neurons, you possibly can reply to an e mail.”
The request, despatched in coordination with the Workplace of Personnel Administration, requested over 1 million federal staff to submit a bullet-point checklist of their weekly work accomplishments. Musk argued that the train was a mandatory step to uncover potential fraud throughout the authorities payroll.
“However what we try to resolve is, we expect there are a variety of individuals on the federal government payroll who’re lifeless, which might be why they can not reply,” Musk mentioned. “And a few people who find themselves not actual individuals … like they’re fictional people gathering a paycheck. Effectively, someone is gathering paychecks on a fictional particular person.”
Musk, serving as a particular advisor to President Trump, tied the initiative to his broader mission of reducing authorities waste.
“We merely can’t maintain a rustic on $2 trillion deficits,” Musk warned, emphasizing that the US is spending extra on curiosity funds than on the Division of Protection. “If this continues, the nation will go bankrupt. It isn’t an optionally available factor.”
Regardless of acknowledging the extreme scrutiny he has confronted, Musk remained assured that DOGE—the Division of Authorities Effectivity—may obtain $1 trillion in financial savings.
“We do want to maneuver shortly,” Musk mentioned. “If we’re to realize $1 trillion deficit discount in monetary yr 2026, it requires saving $4 billion per day day by day from now via the top of September. However we are able to do it. And we’ll do it.”
