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‘More than 1 million’ federal workers have responded to Doge’s ‘what did you do last week’ email, White House claims
Asked when is the deadline referred to in Elon Musk’s deadline second email to federal workers, Leavitt says agency heads will “determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies”.
“The secretaries are responsible for their specific workforce, and this is true of the hirings and the firings that have taken place,” she says.
She adds that unless their agency has told them not to, workers should reply to the email.
She claims more than a million workers have so far responded, including herself.
It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about ten minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working.
Key events
Lauren Gambino
At a rally on Capitol Hill, progressives lawmakers and activists railed against Republicans’ plan to enact Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut and immigration agenda. A vote could take place as early as this evening, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Opposition to the House budget resolution has been steadily building over the last few weeks. During last week’s recess, constituent anger over Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs as well as Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government boiled over at town halls and Congressional offices across the country.
At the Capitol Hill protest, called Tax the Greedy Billionaires and headlined by MoveOn and Indivisible, Senator Chris Murphy assailed the Republican budget bill as the “most massive transfer of wealth and resources from poor people and the middle class to the billionaires and corporations in the history of this country”.
He continued:
You’re talking about $880 billion of cuts to Medicaid. And I get it like $880 billion like, what does that mean? Right? That’s a huge number. Nobody understands. Let me tell you what that means. That means that sick kids die in this country. That means that hospitals in depressed communities and rural communities close their doors, right? That means that drug and addiction treatment centers disappear all across this country.
Congressman Greg Casar, chair of the Progressive Caucus, compared the moment to the early days of Trump’s first term, when Congressional Republicans, newly in the majority, attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The effort prompted a widespread backlash and ultimately failed in the Senate, with a dramatic thumbs-down vote by the Arizona Republican John McCain.
“The American people won and those House Republicans lost,” Casar said. “We’re right back in the same situation, because today, something is happening in America. Americans are rising up to say, ‘We want a government by and for the people, not by and for the billionaires.’”
More on opposition to the Trump administration here:
Asked why Dan Bongino was named deputy director of the FBI rather than a current special agent, as is normal practice, Leavitt claims Bongino got the job because he understands the depth of “past corruption” at the agency.
The press briefing is over now.
Leavitt is also asked what Trump meant when he said federal workers who don’t respond to Doge’s ultimatum email would be fired or “semi-fired”.
She doesn’t clarify things.
She’s also asked again who is the Doge administrator. She repeats what she said earlier: Elon Musk is overseeing Doge, and there are “career officials and political appointees” at Doge.
She says she won’t reveal the name of the individual at this briefing but would be happy to follow up and provide it to the reporter, generously adding: “We’ve been incredibly transparent about the way Doge is working.”
Leavitt is asked about Republican concerns about how (Doge’s) cuts are being carried out, citing Richard McCormick, a Representative from Georgia, who fears “it’s too rapid for people to adapt to” and worries that it’s coming off as “discompassionate”.
Leavitt says McCormick is just one Senator (he’s actually a Representative) and says the most important people are the American people, who support Doge’s efforts to tackle “waste, abuse and fraud”.
Leavitt rejects that cabinet secretaries including at the FBI and DoJ were “caught off-guard” by Doge’s ultimatum email.
She claims “anonymous sources, probably career bureaucrats, have leaked that to many of you in this room”. She adds:
Everybody is working as one team and the president respects the decisions of his cabinet secretaries to tell their staff not to respond to that email because they did so out of interest of national security, and they didn’t want to risk confidential information.
Elon Musk will attend Trump’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday
Leavitt says the Tesla CEO will be attending the president’s first cabinet meeting tomorrow.
He will be “talking about all of Doge’s efforts and how all of the cabinet secretaries are identifying waste, fraud and abuse at their respective agencies”.
Leavitt is asked if Trump is planning on whipping any votes for support for the House budget vote and if so to whom is he making calls.
She says Trump “has made it clear to the Hill what his priorities for a budget are”. She says he has told the Speaker [Mike Johnson], [Senate] leader [John] Thune, adding the Senate and the House know what Trump wants “and what the American people want”.
“He expects Congress to get it done,” she adds. “He’s looking at the proposal from the House, and he will also be looking at the proposal, I believe, the Senate is drafting up as well.”
Asked who is the “Doge administrator” referenced in Trump’s executive order which created the group, Leavitt says the president tasked Elon Musk with overseeing the Doge effort, adding that there are “career officials and political appointees” helping run Doge.
She brushes off a follow-up question asking if that means Elon Musk is the administrator.
Leavitt says there is no update on negotiations on a Ukraine minerals deal and when Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the US.
Leavitt is asked about Elon Musk’s reasoning that the emails were sent out to confirm whether the workers were actually alive. She is also asked about NBC’s report that the responses are going to go into an AI generator to evaluate whether their jobs are necessary. Is all of this to see if people are actually working or is it an effort to cut some of those jobs?
Leavitt says she hasn’t seen NBC News’s report and she hasn’t heard that from Doge or Musk.
‘More than 1 million’ federal workers have responded to Doge’s ‘what did you do last week’ email, White House claims
Asked when is the deadline referred to in Elon Musk’s deadline second email to federal workers, Leavitt says agency heads will “determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies”.
“The secretaries are responsible for their specific workforce, and this is true of the hirings and the firings that have taken place,” she says.
She adds that unless their agency has told them not to, workers should reply to the email.
She claims more than a million workers have so far responded, including herself.
It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about ten minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working.
Asked about Elon Musk’s second email to federal workers threatening that they will be fired if they don’t respond, Leavitt says Trump asked for Musk to be “more aggressive” and five bullet points isn’t a great ask.
She says the president defers to his cabinet secretaries to “pursue the guidance relative to their respective workforce”.
She claims Trump, Musk and the entire cabinet are working as one team.
