Trump: Federal employees who didn't respond to Musk email are on firing "bubble"
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President Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Feb. 26. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Federal workers who didn't respond to Elon Musk's request to outline what they did at work "are on the bubble," President Trump said during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term.
Why it matters: Trump's comments came as he was flanked by every one of his confirmed agency heads, including some whose departments' explicitly told their federal employees not to respond to Musk's email last week.
- Musk, who spoke Wednesday before any member of Trump's Cabinet, said that he received the president's permission to send the email to federal employees requesting they outline the five things they accomplished.
- Musk, who on Wednesday described the email to federal employees as a "pulse check review," had said failure to respond to his email would be treated as a resignation.
Driving the news: "Those million people that haven't responded though, Elon, they are on the bubble ... I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it, they haven't responded," Trump said.
- "Those people are on the bubble as they say, maybe they're gonna be gone," Trump added.
- Later in the Cabinet meeting, Trump told reporters that he thinks Musk wants to send out another email asking federal employees what they've accomplished, which the president called a "good idea."
- The White House said Tuesday that more than 1 million federal employees responded to Musk's email, about half of the full federal workforce.
State of play: Trump's comments came just after the White House directed federal agencies to prepare for mass lay-offs, or reductions-in-force, Axios' Emily Peck reported.
- The agencies were given two weeks to prepare for the widespread layoffs.
- Reducing the size of the federal workforce has been a central focus of the early days of the Trump administration, with Musk taking the lead through sweeping, abrupt changes.
- At the beginning of the meeting, Trump said to his Cabinet that if anybody is "unhappy" with Musk, "we'll throw him out of here."
Zoom out: Trump took questions from reporters for about an hour during the public portion of his Cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
- The president spoke on a wide range of topics, including the Russia-Ukraine war and his $5 million "gold cards" proposal. He also let Musk speak on 'DOGE,' among other topics.
Go deeper: Jolted Republicans beg Elon Musk to ease up with DOGE
Editor's note: This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
