Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The White House on Tuesday said that 1 million federal employees responded to a mass email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) asking them to list five things they had accomplished in the past week.

“We’ve had more than one million workers who have chosen to participate. ... I actually participated in it myself. It took me about a minute and a half,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to a reporter’s question about the OPM email deadline, describing what was asked in the email as something “very simple” that can be accomplished in a few minutes.

Leavitt confirmed that the email was an idea from Elon Musk and that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he leads, helped OPM craft the email. She also said that federal workers need to respond to this email unless told otherwise by their agency heads.

However, agency leaders “are responsible for their specific workforce,” Leavitt said. “This is true of the hirings and firings that have taken place.”

The email drew a lawsuit from unions, businesses, veterans, and conservation organizations, arguing Musk had violated the law by threatening mass firings in a social media post referencing the OPM email. Meanwhile, OPM told agencies that employees are not mandated to respond to the email.

Over the weekend, Musk signaled that people who don’t respond to the mass email would be considered to have resigned from their jobs.

Musk wrote on Saturday on social media platform X that “all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” and that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

He later said that the email was designed to determine whether certain employees are even working, adding that he believes fraud is rampant.

“In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks,” he stated.

“In other words, there is outright fraud.”

The OPM sent out its email request afterward.

“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the message said.

However, it said nothing about the potential for employees to be fired for noncompliance.

Musk on Monday balked at the pushback, saying federal workers “hate even the tiniest amount of accountability” and continued to warn they could be fired.

“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” he wrote on X, which he owns.

“Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”

When asked on Monday about Musk’s comments and the email, President Donald Trump indicated that he was supportive of the effort.

“What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. 

“And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”

The president said Musk and DOGE have found “hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud,” suggesting that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees.

Musk’s posts on X and the OPM email came shortly after Trump wrote on social media on Saturday that he wants Musk to “get more aggressive” in his efforts to downsize the federal workforce and eliminate fraud, abuse, and waste.