Elon Musk gives new ultimatum after federal workers email sparks outrage

Elon Musk has issued federal employees another ultimatum following the backlash to the email asking staff to provide a progress report or resign.

On Saturday (February 22), Musk sent federal staff for the US government an email that indicated those who'd failed to respond to the email wouldn't have a job to return to.

The unusual email demanded federal staffers outline five tasks they'd completed in the last week with a deadline of 11.59pm on Monday - or resign.

Later on, the billionaire tech mogul said the real reason why he sent the demanding email was to see 'who had a pulse and two working neurons' - and to see who in the workforce actually checked their emails.

"This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email," he continued. "Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don't get it yet, but they will."

However, the response wasn't 100 per cent positive, with a senior Defense Department official telling CNN that it was the 'silliest' thing they'd ever seen in their career.

Even FBI has urged employees to not respond to the emails.

Now, Musk has made a fresh ultimatum to those who have apparently disobeyed the email.

Taking to his social media platform, the 53-year-old slammed the 'incompetence' of the workers who ignored his request.

The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!

Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers.

Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are… https://t.co/QjSmY4ezpg

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 24, 2025

He wrote: "The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers.

"Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?"

Musk has since indicated he will be extending the deadline to staff, adding in another tweet: "Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

While it might have it's detractors, President Donald Trump is seemingly pleased with it, as during a meeting with French president, Emmanuel Macron, he responded to the situation.

"What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?" he said (via AP). "And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”

Over on his social media platform, Truth Social, the president expressed his contentment with Musk's approach, however, he felt there could be more oil in the tank when it came to how 'aggressive' he was.

According to NBC News, Musk's DOGE, which is on a cost-cutting mission, will take the data from the emails and input them into an AI system to check what employees are doing are 'mission-critical', reports TheDailyMail.