How one email from Elon Musk left US government workers ‘terrified’

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• Federal staff received emails telling them to respond with a list of five work-related achievements from the past week, or lose their job.
• The News Agents describe the situation as “pretty f*****g dark” and an insider has told Emily Maitlis staff are now “terrified” under the new administration.
• Lewis Goodall says Trump is making governments and leaders everywhere complicit in his lies due to a lack of willingness to call out his actions and untruths.

What’s the story?

Federal workers recently opened their inboxes recently to find an email from Elon Musk waiting for them.

As if contact from the man working to slash billions from government spending – largely through cuts in staff and spending – wasn't worrying enough, they were asked to reply, telling him five things they had achieved in the past week.

Failure to respond, they were informed, would be considered a resignation.

Musk, an unelected official working for Donald Trump's new administration, heads up the department of government efficiency (DOGE), un-amusingly named after the Tesla billionaire's favourite meme.

But while the two have been inseparable since Trump's election campaign in 2024, cracks have begun to show between the two in recent weeks. Trump looked visibly unimpressed when Musk's son X told him he wasn't the president and that he "needs to shush" as Musk held court during a recent Oval Office press briefing.

Now, employees at a number of key government departments have been told to ignore Musk's 'five things' email, by heads such as Kash Patel, who Trump appointed as head of the FBI.

What's happening inside government departments?

Emily Maitis says she finds the situation with Musk's email, ignored or not, "pretty f***ing dark".

She recently spoke to a federal employee about the situation, and how staff had reacted internally.

"There are security concerns, because anything they say obviously implicates whatever the department is doing in terms of national security," she says.

"Employees only want to use Signal now, and that's how they're communicating in their department."

Signal is a messaging app, similar to WhatsApp, but with much more rigorous security and privacy measures.

"They're not using government computers, and they're not having any conversations on email. The younger workers are terrified they might say the wrong thing or be reported by some MAGA insider for saying the wrong thing."

Emily’s contact told her Musk's new role, and Trump's administration had entirely changed the language used between government employees.

"They don't use words like inclusion anymore. They don't talk about diversity. All the pronouns have been struck off. This is obviously overlapping the DEI stuff, and there's an email address that has been put out where the workers are asked to spy on their colleagues.

"They've got no idea who's on the other end of the email.”

She adds there has also been panic in departments who have taken down official photos of Joe Biden, but are yet to receive replacement photos of Trump, and are worried the blank spaces could end up in a MAGA colleague issuing a report.

"The irony of the most right wing government actually adopting things that feel like they've come out of Stasi, East Germany, is one too far," Emily says.

What's The News Agents take?

Jon Sopel says that Musk's actions are, less than two months into Trump's second presidency, pitting some of his key appointments against each other – and it's all playing out in public.

"It's turning into a battle between Musk, and different government heads – the head of the Pentagon, head of the Justice Department – saying, screw you, We're not going to answer that, and telling employees to ignore it," Jon says.

But, for now, it appears Trump intends to continue backing Musk.

"Whatever the nature of the relationships is with Trump – and he still seems to be lauding him – the fact that you have got people, including Kash Patel and others starting to push back from within the federal government, does tell you something about this guy's authority and the extent to how much road he might have to keep pulling capers like this," Lewis says.

And, like so many other situations with President Trump, there is a ripple effect which spreads far beyond the walls of government buildings, and even the borders of the US.

"Trump is making everyone into liars because everyone has to pretend," Lewis continues.

"European and British governments and others all have to pretend that this is all a normal US administration, and it's all fine.

"There are really quite dark, serious questions to ask. Most governments around Europe, are having to look the other way."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents