US official threatened with dismissal

According to tech billionaire Elon Musk, federal employees in the US are at risk of being fired from their civil service if they do not document their work performance. In consultation with US President Donald Trump, all federal employees will soon receive an email "to understand what they did last week," the Trump adviser said on Saturday in the online service X. Failure to respond will be "considered as termination."

Musk's announcement came after Trump had previously called on him to be "more aggressive" in reducing government agencies . The right-wing populist had previously described Musk's approach to reducing the state apparatus as not "aggressive" enough and urged him to take tougher steps. "Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him become more aggressive," Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social on Saturday. He added: "Remember, we have a country to save."

The email, sent by the US Office of Personnel Management and seen by the AFP news agency, has the subject "What did you do last week?". In it, federal employees are asked to describe "five things" they accomplished in the past week. The deadline for responses ends exactly one minute before midnight on Monday. However, the letter contains no indication that failure to respond would result in termination.

Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump administration have "shown their complete disregard for federal employees and the essential services" they provide to US citizens, said the head of the AFGE union, Everett Kelley. He announced legal action.

Tech multi-billionaire Musk has been tasked by Trump with leading a radical cost and personnel cut in federal agencies. Musk and his government department for government efficiency (Doge) are already moving ahead at a rapid pace. Thousands of agency employees have already been laid off. Doge employees are also combing through the internal computer systems of agencies, which Musk says is intended to help identify potential savings.