Mimicking a tactic he used to slash the size of Twitter’s workforce, White House senior adviser Elon Musk on Saturday instructed all 2.3 million federal employees to list five things they “accomplished last week.” The deadline to respond is Monday by 11:59 p.m.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Musk wrote on social media.
This move is the latest effort from the Trump administration to remove government employees en masse. The White House offered buyouts to workers who chose to quit — roughly 65,000 reportedly accepted — and effectively mothballed the US Agency for International Development. The Pentagon started its own purge on Friday by ousting Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, and Air Force Vice Chief James C. Slife.
Several agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told their employees on Sunday to hold off on responding to Musk’s email, in part over concerns about sharing classified information. The US Department of State informed its workers that it would respond to Musk’s email on their behalf. Others, like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security, ordered their staff to reply.
Meanwhile, a backlash appears to be brewing in conservative parts of the country against Musk and US President Donald Trump over their planned government cuts. A group of voters in Georgia jeered their Republican congressman at a town hall on Thursday for backing the administration proposals. A Wisconsin lawmaker faced similar heckling on Friday in his rural conservative district. One Ohio Republican, who also represents a right-leaning area, tacitly rebuked Musk by reiterating that it was Congress who controls the purse, not him.
“What is bothering people is the sense that Donald Trump really does believe he’s king or ought to be,” Larry Sabato, a politics professor at the University of Virginia, told GZERO. “People who don’t take seriously his discussion about running for a third term are dead wrong.”
1,170: The number of high-rise buildings in Kyiv that were left without heating following a barrage of Russian attacks last night on Ukraine’s capital and its energy facilities, per Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hold up signed documents regarding securing the supply of critical minerals and rare earths, at a bilateral meeting at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, October 28, 2025.
Representatives from the European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, and others will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance on critical minerals.
80,000: The number of people estimated to be in the streets of Czechia on Sunday to show their support for President Petr Pavel after he blocked the nomination of an environmental minister who performed the Nazi salute and posted Nazi memorabilia.
The US has started handing $1,000 to the bank accounts of newborn babies. But can policies like this one help boost sagging birthrates in advanced democracies?