Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E tightens grip on ‘what did you do last week?’ emails

Federal employees got another D.O.G.E email Saturday night, and this one didn’t leave much room for excuses.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent out a second round of what’s quickly becoming a dreaded government ritual: listing five bullet points on what they did last week. The subject line—“What did you do last week? Part II”—was a direct callback to last week’s chaotic rollout, which sparked confusion and complaints across agencies.

This time, OPM tightened the leash. Employees have until 11:59 p.m. ET Monday to submit their reports, with no exceptions. The new version specifically targets agencies where workers tried to dodge the requirement, arguing their jobs were too classified to participate. Those employees can now only reply with a pre-approved phrase: “All of my activities are sensitive.” No links. No attachments. No classified details. Just bullet points. Every week.

Musk makes it clear: No one is exempt

Some agency heads aren’t playing along. FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told their employees to ignore the directive entirely. Secretary Pete Hegseth, overseeing the Department of Defense, reportedly instructed staff to circulate the reports internally rather than submit them to OPM.

Musk isn’t having it. He jumped on X to make it clear: “The President has made it clear that this is mandatory for the executive branch. Anyone working on classified or other sensitive matters is still required to respond if they receive the email, but can simply reply that their work is sensitive.”

The message is simple—if you get the email, you answer it. No workarounds.

At President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting of his second term, Musk stood in front of the room, Make America Great Again hat on, and explained what he was after. “I think that email perhaps was misinterpreted as a performance review, but, actually, it was a pulse check review,” he said. Then he dropped the line that sent the internet into a frenzy:

“But what we are trying to get to the bottom of is we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can’t respond.”

While Musk grinned, Trump took a more direct approach during his Oval Office meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. He made it clear that anyone who fails to respond risks getting fired.

Musk’s budget-cutting war targets government spending

Beyond the email chaos, Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) are pushing a bigger agenda—slashing government spending. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick threw a grenade into the debate on Sunday by suggesting a radical shift in how the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is measured.

“You know, that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.”

If that happens, it would shake up the way the economy is reported. Right now, government spending is part of GDP because taxes, spending, and federal policies affect economic growth. If Lutnick removes it, the numbers could look wildly different.

Musk has been pushing this argument hard. On X, he wrote: “A more accurate measure of GDP would exclude government spending. Otherwise, you can scale GDP artificially high by spending money on things that don’t make people’s lives better.”

Critics say this downplays how government spending fuels the economy, from Social Security to infrastructure projects to scientific research. But Musk’s team doesn’t care.

Lutnick doubled down: “If the government buys a tank, that’s GDP. But paying 1,000 people to think about buying a tank is not GDP. That is wasted inefficiency, wasted money. And cutting that, while it shows in GDP, we’re going to get rid of that.”

A government downsizing unlike anything before

Musk’s D.O.G.E strategy could mean tens of thousands of federal jobs cut. That’s not speculation—that’s math. When you gut agencies, you gut jobs. Those laid-off workers lose paychecks, businesses lose customers, and the economy feels the hit.

Right now, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that government spending makes up nearly 20% of personal income in the U.S. That’s $24.6 trillion in earnings last year, covering everything from Medicare and Medicaid to veteran benefits. But Musk and his team argue that government spending doesn’t actually create value—and that cutting it is the only way to fix the system.

Lutnick promised the cuts would balance the federal budget. “When we balance the budget of the United States of America, interest rates are going to come smashing down,” he said. “This is going to be the best economy anybody’s ever seen. And to bet against it is foolish.”

Meanwhile, the most recent GDP report showed 2.3% economic growth in the last quarter of 2024, with government spending increasing at 2.6% for the year. That’s slightly lower than the 2.8% overall growth.

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