Fox News reported earlier this week that over 1 million federal employees had responded to an email from Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk which asked them to lay out their recent accomplishments.

However, roughly 1.25 million workers failed to reply, and that has President Donald Trump threatening to order consequences. 

Musk says he is not trying "to be capricious or unfair"

According to Breitbart, Musk addressed the situation when speaking at Trump's first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, saying, "We're going to send another email."

PRESIDENT TRUMP: "Those millions of people who haven't responded [with their five bullet points] are on the bubble... Maybe they don't exist. Maybe we're paying people who don't exist... But those people are on the bubble." pic.twitter.com/hCmyVjPtQL

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 26, 2025

"Our goal is not to be capricious or unfair," Musk insisted. "We want to give people every opportunity to send an email, and the email could simply be, 'What I’m working on is too sensitive or classified to describe," he acknowledged, adding that such a description "would be sufficient."

The DOGE chief went on to add that he would like "to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well."

Trump: "Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist"

For his part, Trump suggested that some of the civil servants who failed to respond may be attempting to defraud American taxpayers.

"I’d like to add that those million people that haven’t responded though, Elon, they are on the bubble," the president remarked.

"You know, I wouldn’t say that we’re thrilled about it, you know, they haven’t responded," he stated before highlighting a suggestion from Musk that some of those drawing paychecks may be deceased or "not real people."

"Now, maybe they don’t exist. Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist," Trump mused, speculating that some individuals could have found "other jobs" and are "not where they’re supposed to be."

"A lot of things could have happened. I wouldn’t say that Biden ran a very tight administration," the president stressed, noting how he is "being a little more surgical" with some government agencies.

Union head condemns emails

Meanwhile, Fox News reported that American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley condemned the emails last weekend.

"It is cruel and disrespectful for federal employees to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life," Kelley said in a statement.

He warned that the union "will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country."