Elon Musk, who is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to eliminate waste from the federal workforce, took a jab at Senator Tina Smith after the Minnesota Democrat branded him a “bully” over an email asking government employees to document their work accomplishments.
Musk riled up defenders of the sprawling bureaucracy this past weekend by sending workers an email directing them to reply with a list of five bullet points explaining what work they did in the past week.
Musk tweeted that failing to reply to the email “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
Smith spoke with TMZ and hammered Musk for the move, with the outlet describing her remarks as “branding Elon as nothing but a bully using his power to be a jerk, labeling his actions as downright harassment.”
Imagine that – management asking their employees to explain why they work there is now bullying and harassment.
Elon Musk Fires Back
We’d like to point out that Senator Smith also had one of the more childish reactions to the whole ordeal, writing on X that Elon Musk had pulled off the ultimate “dick move.”
“This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick,” she wrote, apparently seeking approval from the pre-teen base of the Democrat Party.
This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick. pic.twitter.com/3fSs2ud7Cz
— Senator Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) February 23, 2025
“I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss – there’s an email in your inbox on Saturday night saying, ‘Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else,’” she continued in her X rant. “I’m on the side of the workers, not the billionaire a—hole bosses.”
Unsurprisingly, a member of Congress is wholly flummoxed over the idea of having to prove government employees did anything at all during a workweek. Members of the Senate rarely have to prove they’re doing anything for the American people. They don’t think others should have to prove their value to a department either.
In that same vein, Musk taunted Smith a bit in his response.
“What did you get done last week?” he wondered.
What did you get done last week?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
RELATED: Even Defense Contractors Warming To Elon Musk’s Cost-Cutting Efforts At DOGE
Elon Says It Was A Test
Elon Musk would further explain why he emailed federal workers asking them to list five things they accomplished on the job the previous week. It was a means to see who was actually reading their work emails.
“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” he wrote.
“In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”
Meanwhile, according to a 2023 study, Senator Tina Smith is one of the least effective Democrats in Congress. It might be hard for her to come up with five bullet points in total since she was elected to the Senate in 2018.
