Musk initially said the request was a 'very basic pulse check,' but now says it will root out 'non-existent people or...dead people' who are collecting paychecks. Several agencies are telling employees to ignore the email for now.

In an X post and email shared Saturday afternoon, Elon Musk told federal employees to list what they had accomplished the prior week or be fired.

Some civil servants are using whatever levers they have to resist the orders of the world’s richest man, both in public and behind closed doors.