President Trump praises Elon’s letter to federal workers: ‘Some of them don’t exist’
President Trump defended Elon Musk’s initiative to send an email to federal employees, requiring them to detail their accomplishments from the previous week. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump described the move as ingenious, stating, “I thought it was great… There was a lot of genius in sending it.”
He argued that the email was a clever way to identify whether federal workers were actually performing their duties, suggesting, “We have people that don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows that they work for the government.”
Trump further speculated that if employees failed to respond, “it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working,” implying the approach could uncover fraud or inefficiency. He framed it as a practical step in his administration’s broader effort, alongside Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to streamline the federal workforce and root out waste, even as some agencies resisted the directive and the administration later clarified that responding was voluntary.