In a recent press conference, President Donald Trump opined that federal employees who haven’t responded to Elon Musk‘s e-mail, demanding disclosure of key tasks they completed the previous week, “don’t exist.” Trump also expressed his interest in making a trip to Fort Knox “to see if the gold is there” as he had a feeling that it might have been stolen.
But before we get to the President’s statement on the e-mail demand, here’s a quick rundown for the uninformed. Last weekend, DOGE head Elon Musk sent an e-mail via the Office of Personnel Management, directing all federal employees to submit a five-point summary of the tasks they had completed/accomplishments they had made the previous week.
The e-mail had a subject line that read, “What did you do last week?” Its body read, “Please reply to this e-mail 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 this Monday at 11:59 pm EST.”
Federal employees got this email at the weekend from Elon Musk via OPM (Office of Personnel Management)
byu/MoreMotivation infacepalm
To make matters worse, Elon Musk took to his handle on X, declaring that “Failure to respond (to the e-mail) will be taken as resignation.” President Donald Trump backed the move, claiming that its aim was to identify non-performing federal employees. “What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?'” said Trump.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
Donald Trump, during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, was asked about the e-mail demand. He responded by saying, “I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government. And then if you don’t answer like you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired. Because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.”
He lauded Elon Musk, calling his demand a “genius” move, saying, “I think it was actually there was a lot of genius in (Musk) sending (the e-mail). If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working.”
Donald Trump also revealed his plans to visit Fort Knox with Musk to check whether the gold reserve was still intact. To those unaware, Fort Knox in Kentucky boasts of a massive gold reserve. It is said to hold over 145 million troy ounces of gold, which represents over half of the US Treasury’s total gold reserves. The last public audit of the reserve was in 1953. Over the years, the lack of audits has fueled speculation and birthed conspiracy theories of it being depleted, removed, or sold off.
Addressing his intentions to verify the status of the reserve, Trump said that he planned on visiting the base with Elon Musk. “(We’re) going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there because maybe somebody stole the gold,” said President Trump.
