Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has sent out a second mass e-mail to executive branch employees requiring them to list their weekly accomplishments by midnight Monday — with a new requirement excepting classified information.
Executive branch agency employees received the email Saturday night — sent out via the Office of Personnel Management bearing the subject line “What did you do last week? Part II,” in a callback to last week’s DOGE email that caused an uproar and confusion.
The federal employees have until 11:59 p.m. ET Monday to write an email listing 5 bullets describing what they accomplished last week.
The email added the new requirement that targeted agencies whose employees sought to be exempt from the extra paperwork due to the secretive nature of their work.
Respondents were told not to send links, attachments, or any classified or sensitive information — and were given the option to write “All of my activities are sensitive.”
“Going forward, please complete the above task each week by Monday at 11:59pmET,” the email stated.
Several of Trump’s newly appointed agency heads told their employees to ignore Musk’s accountability-minded email initiative.
Both FBI director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told their agencies to ignore the demand.
Musk took to X to emphasize that the email is mandatory — responding to claims the Secretary Pete Hegseth has told the Department of Defense employees to circulate their reports internally as well as to OPM.
“The President has made it clear that this is mandatory for the executive branch. Anyone working on classified or other sensitive matters is still required to respond if they receive the email, but can simply reply that their work is sensitive,” the 53-year-old wrote on X.
At the first cabinet meeting of President Trump’s second term, Musk addressed the assembled secretaries and explained the purpose of the rote task.
“I think that email perhaps was misinterpreted as a performance review, but, actually, it was a pulse check review,” Musk said, while wearing a Make America Great Again hat.
“But what we are trying to get to the bottom of is we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can’t respond,” Musk said, grinning.
During an Oval Office meeting with French President Macron, President Trump said that those who don’t answer the email are at risk of being fired.