Try to Make Any Sense of What Trump Says When Asked About Elon’s Email

Donald Trump ramped up his outlandish claims of widespread fraud on Monday, claiming that the government was paying fake people not to work.

During a press conference, Trump cobbled together an explanation for Elon Musk’s contentious email to federal workers from the Office of Personnel Management Friday asking them to explain five things they accomplished last week. On X, Musk later claimed that failing to respond would be tantamount to a resignation.

Federal workers have alleged the threat was illegal; meanwhile, Trump said that there was “a lot of genius in sending it,” because it would help root out what he described as nonexistent government workers.

“You know why he wanted that, by the way? I thought it was great, because we have people who don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government,” Trump said. “So, by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’ And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.

“That’s how badly various parts of our government were run by, and especially by this last group. So, what they’re doing is trying to find out who’s working for the government, are we paying other people that aren’t working, and where is all this—where has the money gone?”

Trump claimed that his administration had already uncovered “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud,” but of course, to Trump, fraud isn’t actually fraud, it’s just any federal spending he does not agree with—any cuts can be justified post hoc by claiming “fraud.”

There is no evidence supporting Trump’s claim that there are fictional people on the government payroll, but then again, his administration has provided no evidence for any of its supposedly mounting claims of fraud in the past two months.

Musk’s email is simply the latest plot to arbitrarily slash the federal workforce, after the administration’s sketchy buyout scheme and mass firings recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency. Now it seems that Musk and Trump are hoping to create a context to justify the mass firing of federal workers.

In that same vein, Musk announced in a post on X Monday that any federal worker who did not return to in-person work this week would be placed on administrative leave. Last month, Trump signed an executive order telling federal workers that they needed to return to work onsite, or be terminated.

Meanwhile, OPM told agency heads Monday that responding to Musk’s email was “voluntary,” and that employees would not be fired if they did not respond.

The nation’s H.R. leaders suddenly don’t seem keen to obey Elon Musk’s weekend threat.

Responding to the president’s request that he become “more aggressive” in sizing down the federal government, Musk wrote in a social media post Saturday that all federal employees must self-report five things that they achieved in the previous week before midnight on Monday or face immediate termination.

Federal workers reportedly received an email from the Office of Personnel Management shortly afterward that echoed Musk’s post. But by Monday, many federal agencies fronted by Donald Trump’s own appointees had simply told their staffers not to respond. Those included the Department of Defense, the FBI, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and most recently, curiously, the Office of Personnel Management.

“This afternoon, OPM during a Chief Human Capital Officers Council meeting, informed agencies that employee responses to the OPM email is voluntarily,” the agency said in an internal email obtained by The Hill.

“OPM also clarified that a non-response to the email does not equate to a resignation,” the email continued.

The stance is a stunning about-face for an agency that has otherwise seemed thoroughly under Musk’s control.

Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel similarly instructed the bureau not to follow Musk’s demands, telling agents that “when and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”

“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of our review processes and will conduct reviews,” Patel said.

Meanwhile, the State Department wrote in a statement that “no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.”

Musk has acknowledged the similarities between the threat to federal employees and his treatment of Twitter staffers during his takeover of the company in 2022, when he fired the social media company’s former chief executive, Parag Agrawal, after publicly accusing him of failing to accomplish his weekly goals.

“Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired,” Musk wrote on X Saturday.

Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid is hurting one of his major campaign promises: taking on fentanyl and ending overdose deaths from the drug in the U.S.

Reuters reports that a United Nations counternarcotics program that seeks to stop fentanyl chemicals from reaching Mexico’s drug cartels has been held up by Trump’s aid freeze, citing eight unnamed sources. The effort gave the Mexican navy training and equipment to boost screening at Mexico’s busiest container port, the Port of Manzanillo. Two more Mexican ports were supposed to be added to the initiative this month until funding was cut off.

The U.S. provided $800,000 in funding to launch the project in 2023 at the Port of Manzanillo, which is used heavily by Mexican drug cartels to sneak in Chinese chemicals used to help manufacture opioids and methamphetamine. Drug traffickers have also used cargo ships leaving the port to stash finished drugs headed overseas. More cargo scanners and drug-testing equipment were supposed to arrive at the Port of Manzanillo before the freeze as well.

Trump’s interruption of foreign aid has also hurt other U.S. anti-drug efforts in Mexico, including a program to train Mexican law enforcement to find and take down hidden fentanyl labs as well as donations of drug-sniffing dogs to the country.

While the Trump administration has scrambled to resume other anti-fentanyl programs with Mexico, including $7.8 million in funding for the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs “to counter production and trafficking of fentanyl and to dismantle terrorist criminal organizations,” the rest of the bureau’s $50 million in funding is frozen.

Last week, the Trump administration labeled 8 Latin American drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” as part of its efforts to combat drug trafficking and migrant smuggling, stepping up its military actions in Mexico as well. But Trump may soon find that counterterrorism mixed with tariffs threats is no replacement for badly needed aid.

“Stopping all these programs at this moment, I just don’t see how this is going to have a positive impact on reducing the numbers of fentanyl deaths in the U.S.,” a former State Department official, Enrique Roig, told Reuters.

President Donald Trump capped a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron Monday by writing a lengthy post on his social media platform—though details regarding a potential Ukraine-Russia peace deal didn’t just appear to favor Russia but also hinted at larger economic goals with America’s longtime adversary.

“Today, President Emmanuel Macron of France joined me in the Oval Office to speak to the G7 Summit,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The meeting was convened by Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, the current chair of G7, to acknowledge the Third Anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine War—Which would have never started if I was President.”

Trump then went on to write that everyone in attendance at the meeting wanted to see an end to the war in Ukraine. Trump also noted that he “emphasized the importance” of the proposed “Critical Minerals and Rare-Earths Deal” between the United States and Ukraine, which would funnel half of the Eastern European nation’s rare earth minerals—hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of materials used in tech and electronic products—into the American market.

Trump has pitched the deal as a way for the U.S. to recoup financial and military assistance it provided to Ukraine, while Ukrainian officials see the trade arrangement as a way to solidify a long-term relationship with an increasingly Russian-friendly U.S. president.

Trump has previously and incorrectly claimed that the U.S. provided some $350 billion to Ukraine. In actuality, the U.S. has allocated $119 billion in Ukraine aid, according to the Kiel Institute, which has been tracking international financial assistance for Ukraine.

Still, Trump made it perfectly clear who the priority would be in the ongoing peace talks.

“At the same time, I am in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia,” Trump said. “Talks are proceeding very well!”

Real estate developer turned U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff spoke with Russian officials last week regarding a potential peace deal. While speaking about the meeting with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Trump’s longtime friend couldn’t detail one thing that Russia would actually have to compromise on in the arrangement.

Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, which Putin tried to justify by falsely claiming that he needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine.

The U.S. and Russia opened discussions at a meeting in Saudi Arabia last week, seeking a conclusion to the three-year war, but the assembly conspicuously excluded Ukrainian leadership.

While speaking at a NATO summit earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explicitly outlined that the Trump administration’s peace talks with Russia had taken several bargaining chips “off the table.”

Those included Ukraine’s possible NATO membership (something the military alliance had promised in 2008), the possibility of a U.S. military presence in Ukraine to enforce postwar security guarantees, and the end of NATO missions to Ukraine. Hegseth also added that it would be “unrealistic” for Ukraine to return to its prewar borders, effectively ceding land to Moscow.

The announcement came as a complete 180 on American and NATO policy regarding the Eastern European country, and left U.S. allies and defense experts reeling. The deal, per Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, amounted to Russian propaganda and was practically “written in the Kremlin.”

Ron DeSantis is scrambling after Donald Trump upended his plans to make DeSantis’s wife his successor for governor of Florida with a single Truth Social post.

“I am hearing that Highly Respected Congressman Byron Donalds is considering running for Governor of Florida, a State that I love, and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “I know Byron well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a TOTAL WINNER! ... As Governor, Byron would have a BIG Voice, and would work closely with me to advance our America First Agenda.… Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida and, should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!”

This ringing endorsement is an indirect rejection of DeSantis, with whom Donalds had a public feud after he endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 Republican primary. And it’s a direct rejection of DeSantis’s wife, Casey. 

​​“[Casey is] somebody that has, I think, the intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative principles,” DeSantis told reporters on Monday. “Anything we’ve accomplished, she’d be able to take to the next level.”

He went on to take shots at Donalds. 

“The reality is we’ve achieved victories in Florida.… A guy like Byron, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the left over these last years,” DeSantis said. “He’s just not been a part of it. He’s been in other states campaigning doing that and that’s fine, but OK, then deliver results up there.” 

Shamed former attorney general nominee and Florida Republican Matt Gaetz chimed in on X: “Man it hurts me to see this [sad emoji]. Governor DeSantis, don’t you remember when you, @ByronDonalds and I were working collaboratively to get you elected in 2018?  We literally were your debate prep team.”

DeSantis has long tried to keep one foot in the MAGA pool and another in classic conservatism. That tightrope act may come to a head in 2028 as the GOP makes critical choices about its post-Trump future. 

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the White House on Monday, and during a press conference in the Oval Office, he was forced to correct President Trump on Ukraine.

Trump remarked that “Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back.” Macron immediately set the record straight, touching Trump’s arm as he explained the truth.

“No, in fact, to be frank. We paid. We paid 60 percent of the total effort, and it was through, like the U.S., loans, guarantee, grants, and we provided real money, to be clear,” Macron said.

Trump wasn’t satisfied with this explanation, and later said, “But they get their money back, we don’t, and now we do, but that’s only fair.”

Trump has attacked Ukraine in recent days, accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of being responsible for Russia’s invasion, enjoying a “gravy train” from the United States, and even calling him a “Dictator Without Elections.” Trump also held negotiations with Russia last week about ending the Ukraine war without representatives from Ukraine or the European Union.

The apparent shift in U.S. policy has caused alarm in Europe, with European leaders scrambling to adjust. Macron is partly traveling to the U.S. to convince Trump of the danger of Russia to Europe and to convince him to continue supporting Ukraine. Based on Monday’s press conference, it’s not clear if Macron will have much success.

The United States has refused to sign a U.N. resolution condemning Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, joining just 18 other countries voting “no.”

The denial of this resolution, titled “Advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine” is the first time the United States has refused to support a U.N. measure brought forth by Ukraine. The resolution calls for “a de-escalation, an early cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine, marked by enormous destruction and human suffering, including among the civilian population, in line with the Charter of the United Nations and international law.”

The other countries opposing the resolution included Israel, Hungary, North Korea, and Russia.

“I would rather not explain it now, but it’s sort of self-evident I think,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked why the U.S. declined to support the resolution that all of Ukraine’s European allies supported wholeheartedly.

The Trump administration had instead posited its own version of the resolution, which called for an end to the war in Ukraine but conveniently omitted any mention of Putin or Russian aggression. That resolution failed to pass.

Trump is capitulating to Russia hard and fast. He blamed Ukraine for starting the war and called President Zelenskiy a “dictator without elections,” while refusing to call Putin one. And in a break from decades of presidential norms, he’s made it clear that he views the U.S.-Ukraine relationship as merely transactional, holding any further aid to the war-torn country hostage unless they give him access to valuable rare earths.

Republican lawmakers across the country are coming face-to-face with droves of angry constituents in the wake of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s upending of the federal government. 

Representative Mark Alford held a town hall in Belton, Missouri, Monday, where he was met with jeers from the crowd as he attempted to justify Musk’s power over government personnel, days after the unelected bureaucrat told federal employees to report five things they accomplished in the last week, or be fired. 

“Why is an unelected person allowed to hire and fire federal employees?” Alford read from a piece of paper, in a video from the Kansas City Star. 

Alford struggled to respond to the question as his constituents shouted him down. “The reason is ... he was hired.… Elon Musk was hired by the executive Donald Trump, and he has given him that authority—”

The room erupted into loud booing. 

Alford’s limp support for the massive layoffs recommended by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was peppered with interjections about the billionaire technocrat’s blatant conflicts of interest and lack of oversight, according to a video posted to Facebook by Daniel Scharpenburg, a union labor activist.

The Missouri Republican really stepped in it by suggesting that if his constituents weren’t happy with Trump’s appointment of Musk, they could vote for someone else in the next election. 

“We didn’t elect Elon!” one person screamed.

“You don’t represent us, you represent Elon Musk!” cried another. 

In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Republican Representative Glenn Grothman also came face-to-face with his angry constituents in an overflowing town hall Friday morning, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. 

Like Alford, Grothman attempted to downplay Musk’s unchecked power when asked how he felt about the unelected bureaucrat’s role in government. 

“He does not have the ability to do any actions on his own,” Grothman said, echoing Trump.

“We did not elect him!” one man shouted. 

When faced with one constituent voicing her disgust with Musk’s incendiary rhetoric about assistance programs, Grothman fled. 

“Calling those people with different abilities ‘leeches’ and ‘losers,’ and that they’re ‘leeching off the system,’” the constituent said. 

“I don’t think so,” Grothman said.

“Yes, I’ve heard it from their own posts,” the constituent responded. 

“I don’t believe it,” Grothman said, walking away. 

“You don’t believe it—you can read it! You are in denial,” the constituent cried. 

“I’ll google it,” Grothman said over his shoulder as he continued out of the room.   

Earlier this month, Musk reposted a meme on X calling out the “parasite class” who use the federal programs Trump intends to slash.

And in Trinity, Texas, Republican Representative Pete Sessions also heard criticism from dissatisfied constituents during a town hall in a community center Saturday, according to The New York Times. 

Veteran Louis Smith told Sessions that while he supported cuts to government spending, Musk was not the guy for the job. 

“I like what you’re saying, but you need to tell more people,” Smith said, per the Times. “The guy in South Africa is not doing you any good—he’s hurting you more than he’s helping.”

Over the weekend, a woman was dragged out of a Republican town hall in Idaho for questioning whether the event was meant to be a public forum or a “lecture.” A former NFL player was also carried out of a City Council meeting in California by police officers last week after protesting the installation of a MAGA plaque at a public library.

A prank played in the cafeteria of America’s housing agency should be cast as a warning sign of malcontent with Elon Musk’s sudden takeover of the executive branch.

On Monday, an AI-generated video of Donald Trump kissing and rubbing Musk’s feet streamed over the televisions in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s cafeteria.

“Long live the real king,” read the text superimposed over the disturbing image, referring to one of the president’s Truth Social posts last week, in which he wrote, “Long Live the King!”

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the stunt.

“Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. Appropriate action will be taken for all involved,” HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said in a statement to The Hill.

The news comes one day after it became apparent that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was eyeing seismic cuts to HUD, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post.

Some 4,000 employees are expected to lose their jobs at the federal housing agency—about half of HUD’s workforce. The mass layoffs are likely to upend the already fragile U.S. housing market and complicate mortgage transactions, as many of the cuts are expected at the Federal Housing Administration, “one of the largest mortgage insurers in the world,” per the Post.

Other cuts proposed for the federal agency would shutter field offices in rural areas across the nation, and practically eviscerate the Office of Community Planning and Development, which among other things provides housing for homeless veterans. The cuts would slash that office’s budget by 84 percent within the next two months.

The stunt also comes after weeks of mounting criticism of the president’s close relationship with the Tesla CEO.

Musk has visually dominated Trump in all of their recent joint appearances. Trump was interrupted and spoken over by his biggest campaign donor during an interview last week with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

The week before that, Musk spent more time talking to reporters than Trump did during a joint Oval Office press conference announcing an executive order that would require federal agencies to bow down to the unelected bureaucrat’s bidding.

The image to the rest of the world was clear: While Trump hunched over the Resolute Desk, the world’s richest man took the reins. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell measured the time spent talking by each administrative figurehead and found that Musk had spoken 3,666 words at the executive order signing, whereas Trump spoke 2,487 words.

Musk’s constant presence at the president’s side stands in stark contrast to the role that Trump’s vice presidents play in his political realm: Former Vice President Mike Pence never spoke more than Trump did at a Trump-centric event during his first term, and Vice President JD Vance likely never will, either (in part because Vance has been conspicuously absent from many major events so far). That discrepancy calls into question what power Musk, who donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign, really has in the administration.

Elon Musk is already being sued over the ultimatum he issued to federal workers over the weekend. 

The Associated Press reports that the State Democracy Defenders Fund filed a newly amended lawsuit in a federal court in California on behalf of unions, businesses, veterans, and conservation organizations saying that Musk’s instructions for federal workers to list and explain five accomplishments from the previous week, or risk losing their jobs, violated the law.  

The lawsuit was originally filed last week but was updated Sunday after Musk’s threatening email. Musk’s instructions on Saturday came both in an X post and an email from hr@opm.gov, an email address set up by the tech mogul’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to blast out messages to federal workers through the Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal workforce.

“No OPM rule, regulation, policy, or program has ever, in United States history, purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to OPM,” the lawsuit states, calling the threat of mass terminations “one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.”

Early Monday morning, Musk escalated his threats, posting on X, “Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere,” despite the fact that several agencies, including those dealing with national security, told their employees not to respond. Meanwhile, the H.R. email address was inundated with fake responses making light of the tech mogul–fascism enthusiast’s demands. 

Musk and DOGE suffered one legal setback on Monday when a federal court in Maryland blocked the Department of Education and OPM from sharing sensitive information with the pseudo-agency. Federal workers are hoping this lawsuit similarly goes well, unlike a lawsuit that failed to stop the mass employee purge last week.