Alina Habba, counselor to President Donald Trump, was asked on live TV by Fox News host Jesse Watters to share one of her bullet points from last week, a poke at Elon Musk’s email request for all federal workers.
Why It Matters
Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced over the weekend that all federal employees will be asked what they accomplished last week, and they should list the tasks highlighted by bullet points. Musk warned that failure to respond to the email “will be taken as a resignation.”
In the immediate aftermath, government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Social Security Administration advised their employees that responding to the email is voluntary or that the email may be “read by malign foreign actors.”
What To Know
While speaking with Habba on Monday night, Watters asked, “What was one of Alina Habba’s bullet points from last week’s list of accomplishments?”
Habba replied, “Well I think my biggest bullet point is top secret so I can’t say it. But I can tell you that I did things from speaking to people in the Middle East to child trafficking to making sure our country is better. At the end of the day, I worked my butt off, because that’s what I committed to do when I took this job.”
Habba added that if someone couldn’t answer it, “that’s a serious problem.”
Musk’s demand sparked waves of controversy and led to the potential threat of legal challenges. As the head of DOGE, Musk is tasked with finding waste in the federal budget.
In an updated post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, Musk said that employees “will be given another chance” but if they fail to respond, “a second time will result in termination.”
While discussing the potential consequence for employees who miss the first 11:59 p.m. Monday deadline, Habba said she believes that workers who get paid have to do their job.
“If you are taking another job, if you are pretending to work from home but you’re not actually working and American taxpayers are paying for it, you better be damn sure that President Trump’s going to figure it out, DOGE is going to cut the waste, cut the fat and you no longer have a job here,” Habba said in part.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment on Musk’s amended deadline Monday night.
What People Are Saying
Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov posted to X on Monday: “If Elon Musk’s ‘what did you do this past week’ email was such a good idea, then why did all of Trump’s cabinet members tell their employees not to respond?”
Musk posted to X on Monday: “The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent? Makes old Twitter look good. Didn’t think that was possible.”
David Axelrod, ex-strategist to former President Barack Obama, posted to X on Saturday: “Undoubtedly, more than a few federal workers feel like telling@elonmusk to go F himself after his latest edict. But to those who comply with, I hope you’ll also post your responses publicly & share what you do every day to help people, protect & serve us.”
What Happens Next
It is immediately unknown when Musk’s second-chance email will be delivered, or if employees will be reprimanded for failing to respond to the first one.
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