US Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy has instructed employees under him, including air traffic controllers, to respond to an email sent by Elon Musk’s DOGE team warning them to justify their employment or face termination. Meanwhile, other agencies are not complying with Musk’s directive.
Air Traffic Controllers Instructed To Justify Their Employment To Elon Musk
Over the weekend, Elon Musk, who President Trump appointed to run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) without Senate approval, sent out an email to federal employees asking what they did last week:
Explaining the email, Musk said, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
(had that arrived in my inbox, I would have simply marked it as phishing and moved on with my day)
I won’t live in fear. The point of these emails is not to eliminate waste, but to assert power and to show who is boss. I don’t play that game and I won’t kiss the ring. This email is about putting fear in the heart of every federal employee but no one named Elon Musk has the power to determine who is useful and who is not and this juvenile email from a drugged-up Mephistopheles is counterproductive.
Like the majority of Americans, I am quite happy for a forensic accountant to audit agencies with a fine-tooth comb because it does appear there is waste…and any such waste is unacceptable. There’s likely graft and corruption too. Let’s all agree to attack that because our budget deficit and national debt are alarming.
But I view these sorts of intimidation exercises as muscle-flexing by an emperor with no clothes, chasing optics and not the sort of real reform that will make a positive difference. Real reform will take hard work…it will take real people to dig deeply.
And this folks is why I now have such low regard for Duffy, who wastes his time arguing with Hilary Clinton online or posting hollow tweets like a sleazy politician instead of actually getting the job done. No, there is no time for such tomfoolery.
Mr. President, 5 things I did last week:
1. Terminated NYC elitist, anti-worker congestion pricing.
2. Launched an investigation into the $16 billion in taxpayer dollars wasted on a high-speed rail project that, after 17 years, has yet to lay a single mile of track.
3. Saved $10…— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) February 24, 2025
'I HAVE NO PROBLEM': @SecDuffy calls on DOT employees to respond to Elon Musk's email asking what they've recently done. The transportation secretary, who shared his own bullet points, said if workers could not detail five things they did, "maybe you shouldn't be employed here." pic.twitter.com/8Nscln0Wky
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 24, 2025
Hmm, what did Air Traffic Controllers do during the last week? Kept our airspace safe. They are overworked enough – we don’t need to assign them busy work.
Meanwhile, other department heads have pushed back on Musk’s order. Tulsi Gabbard, who was confirmed as Director of National Intelligence last week, told her staff, “Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, IC [intelligence community] employees should not respond to the OPM email.”
Kash Patel, who now heads the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Department of Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem also told their staff to disregard the email.
But on Monday afternoon, Musk sent out a fresh demand:
Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance.
Failure to respond a second time will result in termination. https://t.co/04xzgScXfj
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 25, 2025
And Trump backed him, telling reporters at the White House this afternoon, “I thought it was great…There was a lot of genius in sending it. We’re trying to find out if people are working.”
Let the turf wars begin…this is not going to end well.
As laudable as I find the elimination of government waste as a policy goal, the idea that an unelected dark horse and his team of minions using dynamite instead of a broom to sweep away that which is unnecessary is disproportionate and only makes a bad matter worse.
image: @elonmusk / X
Seems legit to question the federal ATC workforce. There are MANY issues with how it is run.
Many countries have it privatized and works just fine.
Just calm down. A very minimal request, which is mostly a request for proof of life. I worked for a Fortune 100 company for over 30 years, and even had to submit daily progress reports from time to time when working on short term priority projects. I requested my teams do regular status reports as well. About time federal employees join the real world.
So if Joe Blow walked into your office and asked for a progress report I suppose you’d give it to them?
Joe Schmoe is his name .
@jeil … +1 . Yep , and a normal job interview merely requests One recent accomplishment .
My answer was : “I arrived Early for this interview , despite traveling 60 plus 80 miles . That would be a total of 140 miles , no ?” I was offered the job .
You are right. thanks for the correction. 🙂
And yet this exactly what you voted for Matthew.
Wrong.
Must be a new reader.
The article reads “They are overworked enough”. I disagree. You here of residents (doctors on training working more than 24 hours straight) but atc controllers do not. At many airports traffic is low. In NYC, there are multiple people working. It is not a video game where all players eventually lose and crash. Rather, just do the work then take a scheduled break.
ATC should easily be able to answer…..like
*directed air traffic at JFK on 5 shifts
*transferred duties to next ATC controller on next shift for planes en route
*filed reports of work performed
*coordinated with supervisor as indicated
Musk ìs hated, I get it. In oʻur town, there is a cuty employee that wastes time just dreaming up city ordinances that are bad and bureaucratic. Like her proposed that all trees be issued license plates.
Don’t be so harsh. As somone who drives a Tesla and uses Starlink, Musk is a genius…who has no place in his current role in the US government.
Musk is not a genius. He is a functional retard (according to his dad) who was given lots of money and advantages that his parents accrued during apartheid.
Furthermore, many ATC don’t even use their government email accounts because their duties dint require the use of email, so this is creating more work for them just to be able to reply.
It sure would be a shame if his private jet was forced to go into an indefinite holding pattern next time controllers see it in the air
I think sometimes it is the functional retards who are the orthodox innovators…think Turing, Hughes, Jobs, and even Einstein.
But Musk has forfeited the respect I had for him in this bald-faced power grab that is stupid…it’s not what is needed to hold people and agencies accountable.
Screw Musk. No one elected him. Bigger issue is the Senate/Congress – not a peep out of them. Guess we could fire them as they are obviously not doing their job, fiscal oversight or otherwise. All scared of Trump….,
Yes, the lapdogs in Congress are derelict in their duty. Even if you accept the unitary executive theory, it does not mean that Congress has no oversight.
So, how do you get the Congress to do their job?
What I do not understand is, why isn’t the usual way, throwing money at Congress people and Senators and their associated lobbyists working?
GOP members in Congress, other than Mitch who is retiring, have an irrational fear of Trump because he is such a vindictive and petty man. I believe they are afraid of being primaried by the sycophants who worship Trump.
I’m all for eliminating workers who have no right enjoying lavish salaries and benefits for doing next to nothing,appointed on the basis of their pigmentation,genitalia,religious affiliation,etc.However,Musk in my opinion isnot a born in the USA American,his roots are Afrikaner/Canadian,and I don’t care who he is,I wouldn’t like such a person terminating me from my USA government job.Like when Crandall was CEO of American Airlines,not a snowball chance in hell the reverse would ever be true with Air Canada.
Ooops Carty not Crandall