Last Saturday, federal employees received a curious email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of the United States, with a deadline to respond about tasks completed the previous week. In response to the indignation that arose among workers, Donald Trump posted a meme mocking them.
The 47th president of the United States seemed to signal his approval for Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to send the email to the Office of Personnel Management that had caused a scandal.
What did Donald Trump post on social media mocking those who criticize Elon Musk?
Trump, aged 78, shared a meme that showed the popular Nickelodeon character, Bob Esponja (SpongeBob SquarePants), with a notepad and pencil while appearing to be deep in thought, while a second notepad held by Bob Esponja’s friend, Patrick Star, displays an edited list titled “What I did last week”.
Then, Musk shared the same image on X and in a separate post described the questions posed to federal staff as “a very basic pulse check.”
Federal workers told AFP that they had been advised not to immediately respond to the email. However, Elon Musk warned that not responding to these messages would be tantamount to resignation.
The union ‘American Federation of Government Employees’ criticized the request in a letter to the Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management, Charles Ezell. “We believe that employees have no obligation to respond to this illegal email unless there is another legal instruction,” wrote AFGE National President Everett Kelley, who represents 800,000 workers.
Senator Tina Smith (Democrat from Minnesota) described the email as “the last move of an idiot Musk boss” in a speech posted Sunday on social media.
“I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss: on Saturday night you get an email in your inbox that says: ‘Prove your worth to me by Monday or else’. I’m on the side of the workers, not the billionaire jerk bosses,” he wrote.