Elon Musk said Monday that federal workers who haven't returned to the office will be placed on administrative leave this week.
Musk, who heads President Donald Trump's advisory Department of Government Efficiency, sent an email to federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO then upped the ante early Monday morning.
"Those who ignored President Trump's executive order to return to work have now received over a month's warning," Elon Musk wrote on X. "Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave."
With his statement, Musk shared a video clip of Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., saying, "Is it too much to ask for them [federal employees] to verify why they're making an average salary of $106,000 a year?"
Earlier Monday morning, while sharing Mario Nawfal's post that included a video of Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., saying Musk's email was a "great idea," the DOGE chief warned that employees "who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere."
Employees had been offered buyout plans if they didn't want to return to in-person work.
Key U.S. agencies, including the FBI, the State Department, and the Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with Musk's latest demand.
The pushback from Trump appointees marked a new level of chaos and confusion within the beleaguered federal workforce, just a month after Trump returned to the White House and quickly began fulfilling campaign promises to shrink the government.
On Thursday, a U.S. judge denied a union bid to temporarily halt the firing of thousands of federal employees on probationary status, handing Trump another legal win in his plan to slash the government workforce.
District Judge Christopher Cooper said he lacked the jurisdiction to handle the complaint, one of several filed in courts in recent days in an effort to pause the mass sackings.
The judge's decision came as around 6,700 workers at the 100,000-strong IRS who were on probation were being laid off.
The Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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