At the first meeting of President Trump’s Cabinet, Elon Musk took control, heavily criticizing federal workers while Trump appeared disengaged, even seemingly dozing off during the meeting. Musk defended his controversial email demanding they report their accomplishments to his office. Musk called the email a “pulse check” and said it was something anyone who was not dead could answer it.
Musk explained that the email was meant to make federal workers prove they were actually doing their jobs. He insisted it wasn’t a personnel review but rather a simple way to check if people were working and not wasting taxpayer money.
“There are fictional individuals collecting paychecks,” Musk claimed about the government. He didn’t offer proof but argued that some people might be fraudulently getting paid without doing any real work. “Are they alive, and can they write an email?” he added.
At the Cabinet meeting, Musk dominated the conversation, standing while speaking and taking questions from the press. He wasn’t a formal member of Trump’s Cabinet, but he acted as though he was in charge, with Trump’s Cabinet secretaries sitting quietly at their desks in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
It was hard to tell if any Cabinet members disagreed with Musk, as their body language and facial expressions didn’t show much reaction. Publicly disagreeing with Trump would have been rare, especially in such a setting.
At one point, Trump joked, “Is anyone unhappy with Elon? If you are, we’ll throw them out of here,” causing some laughter in the room.
Trump also supported Musk’s email, even though some officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, told their staff not to respond. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which handles federal workforce issues, clarified that responses to Musk’s email were voluntary.
Trump also added, “I can tell you everything I’ve done for the last — long period of time. We have a mandate to do this. And this part of the reason I got elected.” He continued, “Those millions of people who haven’t responded, they’re on the bubble. I wouldn’t say they wouldn’t exist.”
Just before the Cabinet meeting, the OPM sent a memo to federal agencies instructing them to submit plans for widespread layoffs by March 13. This came after a February 11 executive order from Trump that mandated these layoffs. The memo also asked agencies to outline plans for restructuring the workforce.
