Elon Musk explains his ‘what did you do last week’ email to federal workers — as Tulsi Gabbard latest to tell staff to ignore it

Elon Musk has further explained why he is demanding federal workers justify keeping their jobs — as newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered her intelligence officers to ignore it.

The billionaire Tesla founder, who now leads President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said late Sunday that the controversial message asking workers to list five accomplishments from the past week or be fired was to see “who had a pulse and two working neurons.”

Musk doubled down on Monday morning, warning federal workers who do not send a list of their achievements by 11:59 p.m. would “soon be furthering their career elsewhere.”

DOGE, created under Trump’s administration, has fired over 20,000 federal government workers and frozen billions in federal grants and foreign aid.

Despite DOGE’s threats to continue making cuts, multiple US agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Education, Commerce and Energy have instructed staffers to ignore the message from DOGE.

Gabbard, who was recently sworn in as Trump’s spy chief, followed FBI Director Kash Patel in ordering her staff not to respond to Musk’s message, the New York Times reported.

“Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, [intelligence community] employees should not respond to the OPM email,” Gabbard wrote.

Her sentiments echo earlier statements made by new FBI Director Kash Patel, who was sworn in to his 10-year term on Friday and told his workers the next day that they should not answer the demand letter.

“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote, according to an NBC report.

“When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”

Musk, who made similar demands during his takeover of Twitter — which he renamed X — insisted the email demand was simply “a very basic pulse check.”

Meanwhile, Trump seemingly signaled his approval of Musk and DOGE’s unusual methods of downsizing the federal workforce by sharing an edited Spongebob Squarepants meme poking fun at those upset by the order.

The 78-year-old president blasted out a meme that showed the popular Nickelodeon character with a pad of paper and pencil as he appeared deep in thought while a second pad held by SpongeBob’s buddy Patrick Star shows an edited list titled “Got Done Last Week.”

The fake list included “Cried about Trump” and “Cried about Elon,” as well as “Made it to the office for once.”

The list rounds out with “Read some emails” and “Cried about Trump and Elon some more.”

With Post wires.