Federal workers are terrified that they have earned the wrath of the world’s richest person Elon Musk as the Tesla CEO and the DOGE co-chief casually questioned the functioning of some federal employees drawing a huge salary from the government. The screenshot with the names of the employees went viral and CNN reported that at least one of the four women named on the list has deleted her social media accounts.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy‘s mandates to cut government expenditure and they said they will start with non-performing staff who are still working from home. All federal employees will be asked to report to the office five days a week and this order would invite many voluntary resignations, the DOGE chiefs said, as these employees are doing some other work while drawing salary from the government.
Is Nancy Pelosi’s niece on the list?
The viral list stemmed from X and DOGE has not issued any such list. The information shared on the screenshot are also from government records. For example, an X post said, “Nancy Pelosi’s niece should not be paid $181,648.00 by the US Taxpayer to be the ‘Climate Advisor’ at HUD.” To this, Elon Musk reacted and said: “But maybe her advice is amazing”.
Another post highlighted an individual named Ashley Thomas, a director of climate diversification at the US International Development Finance Corporation. “I don’t think the US Taxpayer should pay for the employment of a ‘Director of Climate Diversification (she/her)’ at the US International Development Finance Corporation,” an X post said.
Ashley apparently deleted her social media presence after Elon Musk posted a screenshot that had her name.
Elon Musk re-shared the post and wrote: “So many fake jobs”.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, reacted to Musk sharing the names of the employees and said many employees are afraid that their lives will be forever changed. “These tactics are aimed at sowing terror and fear at federal employees,” Kelley said.
Our opponent is not any particular individual: Vivek Ramaswamy
DOGE co-chief Vivek Ramaswamy told CNN that DOGE’s opponent is the bureaucracy and not any particular individual. “Most federal employees, like most human beings, are fundamentally good people and deserve to be treated with respect, but the real problem is the bureaucracy.”
