Elon Musk said Monday that federal workers who do not return to the office will be placed on administrative leave.
The world’s richest man and the face of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency said federal workers have had enough time to fall in line with the administration’s demands.
“Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Mr. Musk posted on X. “Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”
The post on X came in response to a video post in which Rep. Ralph Norman, South Carolina Republican, said: “Not a single government agency is occupying even HALF of their office space.”
The Trump administration and the Musk-led DOGE have zeroed in on the federal workforce as part of their push to downsize the bureaucracy.
Shortly after taking the oath of office a month ago, Mr. Trump signed a “return to in-person work” executive order that directed federal departments and agencies to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.”
The Trump administration also offered a buyout to federal employees who did not want to return to work.
Meanwhile, DOGE shook things up again over the weekend when federal employees received an email demanding they share five things they did last week to justify keeping their jobs.
Mr. Musk followed that up by warning federal workers who failed to respond that they would be considered to have resigned.
However, the push ran into opposition from the heads of federal agencies, including FBI Director Kash Patel, who has been a longtime Trump ally.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.