President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Monday separately endorsed entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio's gubernatorial race.
Ramaswamy, who ran against Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, announced his candidacy earlier on Monday to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in the 2026 election.
Trump announced his endorsement in a post to his social media platform Truth Social.
"VIVEK RAMASWAMY is running for Governor of the Great State of Ohio. I know him well, competed against him, and he is something SPECIAL," Trump wrote.
"He’s Young, Strong, and Smart! Vivek is also a very good person, who truly loves our Country," he continued. "He will be a GREAT Governor of Ohio, will never let you down, and has my COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!"
Musk, a senior advisor to Trump, also offered Ramaswamy his endorsement a short time later.
"Good luck, you have my full endorsement!" Musk responded to Ramaswamy in a post on X.
Ramaswamy formally declared his candidacy during a rally on Monday in his hometown of Cincinnati.
"I will lead Ohio to become the state of excellence in America," Ramaswamy told the crowd.
"Think that sounds unrealistic? It’s not," he said. "In fact, it wasn’t long ago that Ohio was that state. Today, young people on the internet make fun of something by saying ‘that’s so Ohio.’ But less than a century ago, people weren’t making fun of Ohio, they were aspiring to be Ohio."
Ramaswamy, 39, dropped out of the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to endorse Trump and become a surrogate for the current president.
President Donald Trump turned his attention to the Keystone XL Pipeline on Monday evening, calling for the company building it to "come back to America, and get it built — NOW!"
Trump said he was "just thinking" about how construction on the pipeline was "viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration," and promised things are different now under his leadership.
"I know they were treated very badly by Sleepy Joe Biden, but the Trump Administration is very different — Easy approvals, almost immediate start! If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!"
The pipeline has been at the forefront of political debate since the project began construction in 2010, and was eventually halted by former President Barack Obama before it was finished. Trump revived it during his first term.
However, former President Joe Biden ordered the pipeline cancelation via executive order on his first day in office in January 2021, leading to thousands of job losses.
TC Energy, the operator of the Keystone XL pipeline, ultimately gave up on the project in June 2021 as a result of Biden's decision to cancel its federal permits.
Then, in 2023, a federal judge tossed a legal challenge from nearly two dozen states asking the court to reinstate the pipeline's permits.
The pipeline had been scheduled to be completed in early 2023 and would transport an additional 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through an existing pipeline network, according to TC Energy. It was also projected to create thousands of jobs, many of which would have been union jobs.
In December 2022, the Biden administration's Department of Energy (DOE) published a report that said the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4 and $9.6 billion, citing various studies.
"Joe Biden’s action cost tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars and every American family is still paying more every day," Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power the Future, shared with Fox News Digital in a previous statement.
The system was designed to carry oil from Alberta to states like Illinois, Texas and Oklahoma.
In January, Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, Canada, said that she was interested in talking to the Trump administration about potentially reopening the pipeline project.
"Restarting the Keystone XL pipeline aligns with President Trump’s agenda to lower food and energy costs by bolstering North American energy infrastructure and reducing reliance on costly imports," Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute (AEI), previously told Fox News Digital.
Another expert said that Trump will likely face litigation if he chooses to proceed with construction of the pipeline, but that Congress could help limit legal action.
Fox News Digital's Aubrie Spady and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump turned his attention to the Keystone XL Pipeline on Monday evening, calling for the company building it to "come back to America, and get it built — NOW!"
Trump said he was "just thinking" about how construction on the pipeline was "viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration," and promised things are different now under his leadership.
"I know they were treated very badly by Sleepy Joe Biden, but the Trump Administration is very different — Easy approvals, almost immediate start! If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!"
The pipeline has been at the forefront of political debate since the project began construction in 2010, and was eventually halted by former President Barack Obama before it was finished. Trump revived it during his first term.
However, former President Joe Biden ordered the pipeline cancelation via executive order on his first day in office in January 2021, leading to thousands of job losses.
TC Energy, the operator of the Keystone XL pipeline, ultimately gave up on the project in June 2021 as a result of Biden's decision to cancel its federal permits.
Then, in 2023, a federal judge tossed a legal challenge from nearly two dozen states asking the court to reinstate the pipeline's permits.
The pipeline had been scheduled to be completed in early 2023 and would transport an additional 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through an existing pipeline network, according to TC Energy. It was also projected to create thousands of jobs, many of which would have been union jobs.
In December 2022, the Biden administration's Department of Energy (DOE) published a report that said the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4 and $9.6 billion, citing various studies.
"Joe Biden’s action cost tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars and every American family is still paying more every day," Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power the Future, shared with Fox News Digital in a previous statement.
The system was designed to carry oil from Alberta to states like Illinois, Texas and Oklahoma.
In January, Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, Canada, said that she was interested in talking to the Trump administration about potentially reopening the pipeline project.
"Restarting the Keystone XL pipeline aligns with President Trump’s agenda to lower food and energy costs by bolstering North American energy infrastructure and reducing reliance on costly imports," Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute (AEI), previously told Fox News Digital.
Another expert said that Trump will likely face litigation if he chooses to proceed with construction of the pipeline, but that Congress could help limit legal action.
Fox News Digital's Aubrie Spady and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who's slashing wasteful government spending with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said federal workers who fail to respond to his productivity email may be given another chance, but warned if they fail to respond a second time, they'll be terminated.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an email titled, "What did you do last week?" to federal employees, calling on them to submit five bullet points detailing their accomplishments over the past week, or face possible termination.
Several agencies, including the Department of Defense (DOD) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), responded to the request, telling their employees to ignore the OPM email.
Musk appeared to be fired up by the lack of response to the request, turning to X to express his frustration just hours before the 11:59 p.m. Monday deadline.
"The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!" he wrote. "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."
Musk responded to a post by Matt Walsh, host of "The Matt Walsh Show," saying the government should fire any federal worker who did not answer the email, complained publicly or privately about the email or did anything other than answer it promptly.
"Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance," Musk responded. "Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."
When Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he called on the social media giant’s former CEO Parag Agrawal to detail what he accomplished during the work week — years before he employed the same tactic on federal employees while serving in his capacity as chair of DOGE under the Trump administration.
"What did you get done this week," Musk texted Agrawal in April 2022.
Musk helped resurrect the text exchange over the weekend on X, when he responded to an account that shared a "how it started, how it’s going" post that showed a screenshot of Musk’s text to Agrawal, accompanied by a screenshot of a post on X from Musk on Saturday, directed at federal employees.
In the post, Musk wrote, "Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired."
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X on Saturday. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
"To be clear, the bar is very low here," Musk wrote. "An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write."
Musk’s DOGE is in the midst of auditing various federal agencies in search of wasteful spending, corruption and mismanagement.
DOGE’s work comes as President Donald Trump ordered the federal workforce to return to the office after five years of remote work stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, and has vowed to clean house of bad actors within the government and axe overspending.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
"ATF welcomes Acting Director Kash Patel to ATF, who was sworn in and had his first visit to ATF Headquarters in Washington, D.C. today. We are enthusiastic to work together for a safer America!" the agency posted Monday on X.
Patel was sworn in to lead the ATF days after taking an oath to head the FBI following a contentious confirmation process in which Democrats raised alarms about his lack of management experience, among other claims.
In response to the news, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., called Patel "a gun lobby puppet who has no business leading the FBI or the ATF."
The National Rifle Association (NRA) said Patel's appointment was a first toward reforming the agency.
"For far too long, ATF has focused on how it can manipulate federal statutes to restrict the rights of law-abiding Americans," the group wrote on X. "We look forward to working with Acting Director Patel to protect and expand Second Amendment freedoms."
President Donald Trump hasn't made clear what his plans are for the ATF, which has long been a target for congressional Republicans. The agency is charged with enforcing the nation’s laws with respect to firearms, explosives and arson.
It's also charged with licensing federal firearms dealers, tracing guns used in crimes and analyzing intelligence in shooting investigations.
On Sunday, Trump also named former U.S. Secret Service agent Dan Bongino as FBI deputy director.
Patel called Bongino's appointment "tremendous news for law enforcement and the future of American justice!"
"His leadership, integrity, and deep commitment to justice make him the ideal choice to help lead the FBI at this critical time," he said. "He’s a cop's cop."
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) warned employees that if they choose to reply to Elon Musk's directive to submit a list of five accomplishments for the past week, they should assume it will be read by "malign foreign actors."
Fox News Digital confirmed that a letter sent by HHS to employees addressed an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) titled, "What did you do last week?" which directed federal employees to submit five bullet points detailing their accomplishments over the past week or face termination.
"In discussions with OPM officials yesterday and today, OPM has now rescinded that mandatory requirement," HHS told its staff members. "There is no HHS expectation that HHS employees respond to OPM and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond."
But should employees choose to respond, HHS provided a set of guidelines, including responding by the deadline of Monday at 11:59 p.m.
Other guidelines included keeping responses at a high level of generality while describing their work in a way that protects sensitive data, information that could identify others in the agency and information that could identify specific grants or contracts.
Additionally, the agency said if staffers are engaged in research or reviews, to not identify drugs, devices, biologics, therapeutics or similar items in their responses, and if they are engaged in scientific research, to not provide information giving the precise nature of the work.
"Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly," HHS told its staff.
Musk, a senior advisor to President Donald Trump, said earlier on Saturday that employees would receive an email giving them a chance to explain how productive they were the previous week. If an employee fails to respond to the email, Musk said the government will interpret that as a resignation.
Fox News confirmed on Monday that OPM told human resources officials from federal agencies that OPM is not taking a one-size-fits-all approach, and the administration will work with individual departments to account for workers.
This comes as several agencies have either told their staff members to ignore the request or adhere to it.
For instance, the Department of Defense told its civilian workforce on Sunday to ignore the request to report their productivity.
"DoD personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel, and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures," Darin S. Selnick, who is performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in a letter to staff. "When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled, ‘What did you do last week.’"
Also telling employees to stand down was Kash Patel, who was confirmed by the Senate last week as the new director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
"FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information," Patel told employees, according to The Associated Press. "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. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses."
The State Department also reportedly issued a similar message to employees on Saturday, informing them that department officials "will respond on behalf of the Department," according to a message sent by Ambassador Tibor P. Nagy, who serves as acting under-secretary of state for management.
Musk turned to X on Monday, saying, "Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."
Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.
The Boston City Council member who recently mocked Border Czar Tom Homan's employment history walked back her comments in a follow-up post about the Trump administration official.
Councilwoman Sharon Durkan, who accused Homan of spending his career "policing a town smaller than a Fenway Park crowd," posted a clarification shortly after a Fox News Digital request for comment on Sunday evening.
"Yes, I understand that Tom Homan spent his career as a federal agent within Border Patrol & ICE, but that’s a world away from the realities of policing a major city," Durkan explained. "His background is in immigration enforcement, not community policing – where trust and accountability are key."
The Smith College graduate raised eyebrows after mocking Homan's brief stint as a police officer in West Carthage, New York, implying that he was unqualified to enforce President Donald Trump's border policy in Boston because of that experience. But Homan's time in the small-town department only lasted from 1983 to 1984, before he became a Border Patrol agent and eventually worked his way through the ranks of the Obama and Trump administrations.
"Laughable that someone who spent their career policing a town smaller than a Fenway Park crowd thinks they can lecture Boston on public safety," the councilwoman's original Feb. 23 post read. "Commissioner Michael Cox serves with distinction and earns trust with integrity."
"Tom Homan should know, we don’t scare easy," Durkan added.
Durkan's remarks came after Homan called out Beantown during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday, specifically calling out Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox for enforcing the city’s sanctuary policies.
"I'm coming to Boston, and I'm bringing hell with me," Homan said during his speech. "I looked at the numbers this morning... I stopped counting at nine. Nine child rapists that were in jail in Massachusetts, but rather than honoring an ICE detainer, you released them back into the street."
"You're not a police commissioner," the Trump administration official added. "Take that badge off your chest. Put it in the desk drawer. Because you became a politician. You forgot what it’s like to be a cop."
Massachusetts and the greater Boston area have seen several arrests of criminal migrants in recent weeks, including an illegal immigrant connected to a violent Brazilian gang who was recently arrested in Bellingham. Cox has previously said that his department "doesn't enforce detainers" that are filed by ICE, and that Boston cops "abide by Boston law and Massachusetts law."
"The Boston Police Department has pretty defined rules and we abide by the law here in the state," the police chief said on a segment of WCVB’s "On the Record" show. "We don’t enforce civil detainers regarding federal immigration law. It's defined here in the state, and that’s just how it works."
Fox News Digital reached out to Durkan for additional comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
House Republicans' mammoth budget reconciliation bill is in peril on Monday evening with at least two GOP lawmakers threatening to vote against it.
House GOP leaders are hoping to hold a vote Tuesday on a vast bill advancing President Donald Trump's priorities on the border, defense, taxes, and energy.
But at least two House Republicans have said they oppose the legislation – and the GOP's razor-thin margins mean Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can only afford one defector to still pass anything along party lines, if all Democratic lawmakers are present.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters he was against the bill on Monday, the day after Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., said she was also opposed. Both said they are seeking assurances that Congress is sufficiently committed to cutting government over-spending.
Meanwhile, a group of GOP lawmakers in less ruby-red districts are still undecided over potentially severe cuts to Medicaid and other federal programs to offset the cost of Trump's priorities.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told reporters there was "somewhere between six and 10" House Republicans who needed more clarity on where spending cuts will fall.
"If I don't get answers, I'm not going to vote for it," Malliotakis said. "But if I can get some clarity and assurances, then you know, we're moving a little bit more toward the ‘yes’ column."
Malliotakis said on the way into Johnson's office Monday that there was "a lot of seniors and people with disabilities" in her district, "and I want to make sure they're not gonna get harmed in this process."
Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., who was also part of that meeting, called it "helpful" but did not commit to supporting the bill.
Malliotakis and Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, also said they were still undecided when leaving the meeting.
Spartz is also expected to meet with Johnson at some point Monday to discuss her stance.
Burchett, however, told reporters he had no current plans to speak with Johnson about his opposition – but left room to be persuaded.
"I would like to see a commitment that we're going to go after [spending cuts]," Burchett said. "When we say we're decreasing the rate of growth, we're still growing. And again, can we not just go back to pre-COVID spending levels?"
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., also signaled he was against the bill, writing on X, "If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better."
House and Senate Republicans are aiming to use their majorities to pass a broad swath of Trump policies, from more border security funding to eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages, via the budget reconciliation process.
By leveling thresholds for passage in the House and Senate at a simple majority, reconciliation allows the party in power to pass fiscal legislation without any support from the opposing side. The Senate has a two-thirds majority threshold to advance most measures.
The bill aims to increase spending on border security, the judiciary and defense by roughly $300 billion, while seeking at least $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending cuts elsewhere.
As written, the bill also provides $4.5 trillion to extend Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions, which expire at the end of this year.
A handful of President Donald Trump administration officials are publicly listing their top accomplishments for the previous work week following Department of Government Efficiency Chair (DOGE) Elon Musk announcing federal employees must provide a bullet-point list of work successes before midnight on Monday or risk losing their jobs.
"Mr. President, 5 things I did last week:" Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted to X Monday morning. "1. Terminated NYC elitist, anti-worker congestion pricing. 2. Launched an investigation into the $16 billion in taxpayer dollars wasted on a high-speed rail project that, after 17 years, has yet to lay a single mile of track. 3. Saved $10 million a year by eliminating redundant and outdated landlines."
He continued: "4. Visited the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Virginia to see the critical tech upgrades we need to make our air traffic system the envy of the world. 5. Toured Burbank, California traffic control tower and heard from air traffic controllers about how to improve conditions and retain and recruit more controllers."
Musk announced Saturday that federal employees would receive an email directing them to list their accomplishments from the week prior, with the DOGE leader adding later that day that the assignment should take less than five minutes to accomplish.
Employees have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to send the list or lose their employment, according to emails regarding Musk's directive that were sent by the Office of Personnel Management.
A handful of Trump administration officials also have provided their accomplishments lists for the past work week, including Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration.
Loeffler listed her accomplishments in a comment provided to Fox News Digital, which led with her empowering "the Office of the Advocate to work across agencies to cut burdensome regulation imposed on small businesses."
"Established the Office of Manufacturing and Trade to promote President Trump‘s America first agenda; created a Fraud Working Group to crack down on loan fraud across all portfolios; ended voter registration MOUs with state governments, rejecting Biden-era efforts to turn SBA into a vehicle for partisan voter registration; canceled all employee telework agreements in accordance with the president’s return to work presidential memorandum, enabling the agency to better deliver results for job creators; Met with governor's from around the country to discuss SBA's services at the state level and presence across the country," the list continued.
The White House also provided five examples on Saturday afternoon on its Rapid Response X account.
"Just got this email. Where do we begin?" the White House’s Rapid Response X account posted Saturday evening, accompanied by a screenshot of the OPM email informing employees to comply with the accomplishment directive.
The White House listed: Trump signing an executive order expanding access to in vitro fertilization treatments, another executive order that works to stop taxpayer benefits landing in the hands of illegal immigrants, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks reporting Trump's policies have led to a 94% drop in illegal border crossings, Apple announcing a $500 billion investment in U.S., and the Trump admin working to ensure "Maine does not allow men in girls' locker rooms and sports" through an investigation of the state’s Department of Education.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins posted his list of five accomplishments at Veterans Affairs, including identifying and eliminating "wasteful contracts."
Ahead of Musk’s announcement informing federal workers list their accomplishments, other agencies posted their wins for the first month in office, including Collins posting a Friday video of the department’s accomplishments for the first month on the job, while the Department of Defense launched a rapid response account on X to celebrate accomplishments while also "Fighting Against Fake News."
A handful of federal departments that deal with sensitive and classified information told their staffers to ignore the order to list their accomplishments, which President Donald Trump said on Monday was a "friendly" rejection due to the sensitive materials some government employees handle on a regular basis.
"That was done in a friendly manner," Trump said Monday while speaking with the media alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. "Only things such as, perhaps Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things. Or the FBI, where they're working on confidential things. And they don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They're just saying there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they're working on last week."
FBI Director Kash Patel, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security were among the agencies and departments that informed staff to not respond to the email.
"FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information," Patel told employees in an email over the weekend. "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. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses."
Trump lauded the directive Monday, arguing that it will expose government employees who aren't actually carrying out tasks.
"There was a lot of genius in sending it," Trump said Monday from the White House. "We're trying to find out if people are working. And so we're sending a letter to people. Please tell us what you did last week. If people don't respond, it's very possible that there is no such person or they're not working."
Some unions and Democratic lawmakers have lambasted the directive, including Illinois Rep. Sean Casten calling on federal employees to flout the order, arguing it is a "a good opportunity for mass civil disobedience."
President Donald Trump warned that federal employees who don’t follow new guidance requiring them to report personal productivity could lose their jobs.
The effort stems from an email that SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk spearheaded that asked federal workers to send an email Monday detailing a summary of what tasks they accomplished the previous week. Musk is heading up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that aims to reduce government waste and fraud.
"I thought it was great," Trump told reporters of the initiative Monday at the White House, "because we have people who don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government. So by asking the question, 'Tell us what you did this week,' what [Musk is] doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?' If you don't answer, you’re sort of semi-fired, or you're fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist."
Musk unveiled the email in a post on X on Saturday and cautioned that a failure to reply was equivalent to handing in a resignation.
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
Federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel and Management on Saturday that instructed them to provide a list of five things they accomplished the previous week by a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday.
The American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union for federal workers, criticized the policy and said Trump and his administration have once again demonstrated "utter disdain" for federal employees.
"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," American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a Saturday statement.
The federation "will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country," Kelley said.
Meanwhile, multiple agencies have issued instructions telling their employees to disregard Musk’s guidance.
For example, the Department of Defense issued a letter to its civilian personnel asserting the Pentagon’s autonomy on Sunday and directing employees to ignore Musk’s request to send details of their work week to the Office of Personnel Management.
"DoD personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information," wrote Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures.
"When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM," he wrote. "For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled, 'What did you do last week.'"
FBI Director Kash Patel issued a similar directive to his staff and said the agency "will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures," according to the Associated Press.
DOGE, which is tasked with weeding out government overspending, is facing multiple lawsuits from government employees seeking to challenge Musk’s efforts to audit various federal agencies.
Fox News' Greg Wehner, Jennifer Griffin and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
EXCLUSIVE: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is ending the use of the controversial CBP One app to allow migrants to board domestic flights – unless it is being used for their self-deportation.
"Secretary Noem is reversing the horrendous Biden-Era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country and do so without identification," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"Under President Trump, TSA and DHS will no longer tolerate this. Aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport," they said.
The Biden administration had expanded the use of the CBP One app to allow migrants to enter the U.S. at ports of entry or via a separate parole process. That process involved them uploading information including a photograph. The Biden administration also allowed for the app to be used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to verify a migrant without sufficient ID by comparing a photograph of a migrant in DHS records, and also use biometric matching. Those verified would also receive additional physical screening.
While migrants being allowed to board flights without ID predates the Biden administration, the use of the CBP One app has since become a method for identity matching of migrants without acceptable forms of ID. The new policy change ends the use of CBP One at screening checkpoints and TSA’s National Transportation Vetting Center, and also bars air travel for migrants who were paroled or released into the U.S. pending their immigration processing, who do not present a TSA-accepted form of ID, and who are not self-deporting.
It marks the latest crackdown on illegal immigration and also those who have been paroled into the U.S. using the CBP One app. President Donald Trump ordered an end to the use of the CBP One app to parole migrants into the U.S. on his first day in office. His administration has also paused applications for parole programs, and allowed ICE to cancel parole statuses of migrants.
Last week, Noem also reversed a Biden-era extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. That in turn comes after the cancelation of a separate TPS extension for Venezuelan nationals. Noem also signed a memo that deputizes up to 600 State Department officials to act as immigration officers.
FIRST ON FOX: As the Trump administration’s DOGE efforts continue to have an impact across government agencies, over 12,000 employees at the General Services Administration are being notified in an agency-wide email Monday evening that a "reduction in force" is underway.
In the memo from acting GSA administrator Stephen Ehikian, according to a draft obtained by Fox News Digital, the agency thanked those employees who decided to be part of the "first step" of staff reduction on Friday by resigning from GSA and previewed the "next step of this process in support of the Presidential Executive Order: Implementing The President's Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative, The White House, dated February 11, 2025."
"This serves as notice that the agency will be conducting a Reduction in Force (RIF) and is seeking approval from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to also obtain a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA)," the email states. "More information to impacted business units and employees will be forthcoming."
The letter ends by thanking the employees that will be affected for their "service to this nation."
"I promise you that GSA will continue to do everything in our power to make your departure fair and dignified," the letter concludes.
Fox News Digital was told by a source familiar with the situation that 30-40 employees will be affected by the reduction at first, as the agency starts with a focused number meant to ensure the plan is executed well with minimal mistakes.
The GSA, which performs a variety of tasks including managing federal real estate and procuring goods and services, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 11 regional offices.
A GSA senior manager familiar with the process told Fox News Digital that the first actions will be targeted on select offices rather than the entire agency and that bargaining unit employees are not anticipated to be affected.
Additionally, the agency is looking for an additional Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, as outlined by the OPM, and will be offering severance or discontinued services annuities as appropriate.
"GSA realizes that a Reduction in Force, while necessary to meet the administration's mandate to rightsize the federal government, reduce waste and redundancies, and deliver a more cost-effective service to the taxpayer, will impact our workforce," a GSA spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"GSA is committed to treating all of our employees respectfully and fairly, in accordance with all applicable laws and bargaining unit agreements, during this process."
The executive order from earlier this month cited in the memo stated that it was intended "to restore accountability to the American public" and "commences a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy."
"By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself," the executive order states.
Vivek Ramaswamy formally declared his candidacy for Ohio governor on Monday during a rally in his hometown of Cincinnati where he outlined his plan to "revive our conviction" in the state of Ohio, where he says the "best days are still yet ahead."
Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, for weeks has been moving towards launching a gubernatorial campaign in the 2026 race to succeed GOP Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, who is term-limited and cannot seek re-election.
"I will lead Ohio to become the state of excellence in America," Ramaswamy told the crowd. "Think that sounds unrealistic? It’s not. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that Ohio was that state. Today, young people on the internet make fun of something by saying ‘that’s so Ohio.’ But less than a century ago, people weren’t making fun of Ohio, they were aspiring to be Ohio."
Ramaswamy, who's now 39 years old, was among the contenders who challenged President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination before dropping out of the race and becoming a top Trump ally and surrogate.
He launched his presidential campaign in February 2023 and quickly saw his stock rise as he went from a long shot to a contender for the Republican nomination.
He campaigned on what he called an "America First 2.0" agenda and was one of Trump's biggest supporters in the field of rivals, calling Trump the "most successful president in our century."
Ramaswamy dropped his White House bid 13 months ago after a distant fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and quickly endorsed Trump, becoming a top surrogate on the campaign trail.
Trump, in the days after his November presidential election victory, named Elon Musk, the world's richest person, along with Ramaswamy, to steer the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, which is better known by its acronym DOGE.
But last month, as Trump was inaugurated, the new administration announced that Ramaswamy was no longer serving at DOGE. Ramaswamy's exit cleared the way for Musk, Trump's top donor and key ally, to steer DOGE without having to share the limelight.
"It was my honor to help support the creation of DOGE. I’m confident that Elon & team will succeed in streamlining government. I’ll have more to say very soon about my future plans in Ohio. Most importantly, we’re all-in to help President Trump make America great again!," Ramaswamy wrote at the time.
Musk and Ramaswamy recently sparked a firestorm among Trump's hard-core MAGA supporters over their support for H-1B temporary worker visas for highly skilled workers from foreign countries.
Ramaswamy's comments criticizing an American culture that he said "venerated mediocrity over excellence" received plenty of pushback from some leading voices on the right as well as some in Trump's political circle.
DeWine announced last month that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted would fill the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio that was held by now-Vice President JD Vance until he stepped down ahead of the Trump/Vance inauguration.
Before the Senate announcement, Husted had planned to run for governor in 2026 to succeed DeWine. Ramaswamy, for his part, had expressed interest in serving in the Senate.
DeWine's decision to choose Husted to fill the vacant Senate seat appeared to accelerate Ramaswamy's move toward launching a run for governor.
Ramaswamy was raised in Evendale, Ohio, in suburban Cincinnati by parents who emigrated from India. His father worked as an engineer at General Electric Aviation and his mother was a geriatric psychiatrist. Ramaswamy and his family currently live in suburban Columbus.
Ramaswamy is kicking off his campaign at CTL Aerospace just outside of Cincinnati. Sources with knowledge say CTL Aerospace, a privately held company that specializes in aviation repair and original equipment manufacturing, symbolizes Ramaswamy's push for a new age of growth of industry in Ohio.
The candidate is also scheduled to make stops in the next 48 hours in the Columbus, Toledo and Cleveland areas.
The race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination could be competitive. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, 68, announced late last week his candidacy for governor.
"This is my heart, my home," Yost said in a recent press release announcing his candidacy. "I work for the people of Ohio, and I love my bosses. From the time I get up in the morning until I go to bed at night, I'm thinking about them and our future."
Ohio GOP Treasurer Robert Sprague, who filed paperwork to run for governor, changed course after Husted's Senate appointment and announced he is running in the Republican primary for Ohio Secretary of State.
Sprague endorsed Ramaswamy, calling him "the leader we need to lead Ohio forward with a bold vision of conversation reform."
Former Morgan County local school board member Heather Hill has also announced she is running for governor as a Republican.
Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a well-known former Ohio State University head football coach who was sworn in last month to succeed Husted, appears to be mulling a gubernatorial run.
Ohio, which was once a top general election battleground, has shifted to red over the past decade as Republicans have dominated statewide elections, and the eventual GOP nominee will be considered the clear front-runner in the 2026 election.
There's speculation that former longtime Rep. Tim Ryan, the 2022 Democratic Senate nominee in Ohio, is possibly considering a gubernatorial bid, as well as Chris Redfern, a former longtime state representative and former state Democratic Party chair.
Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who was one of the prominent faces of the COVID-19 response in the state, has announced she is running for governor as a Democrat.
As Fox News confirmed last month, leading members of Vice President JD Vance's political team, including two top advisors, are helping Ramaswamy's gubernatorial bid.
The two Vance advisors are Andy Surabian and Jai Chabria, who played major roles in Vance's 2022 Senate race and in his vice presidential campaign last summer and autumn, after Trump named the first-term senator as his running mate.
Tony Fabrizio, the veteran Republican pollster who worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns, as well as Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign, is also helping Ramaswamy, as is Arthur Schwartz, who along with Surabian is a close ally to Vance and Donald Trump Jr.
The vice president, who has known Ramaswamy since they both studied at Yale Law School, has put his imprint on Ohio politics since winning his 2022 Senate election.
Vance endorsed now-Sen. Bernie Moreno ahead of his 2024 GOP Senate primary victory, and key members of Vance's political team steered Moreno's campaign.
"We don’t have to be a state in decline," Ramaswamy said on Monday. "A decade from now, when we cure a genetic disease; when we send rockets to Mars; when we power our electric grid with nuclear fusion…the thing people are going to say is ‘that’s so Ohio.’ And this is just the beginning."
EXCLUSIVE: The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is subpoenaing the Massachusetts Port Authority for documents requested last year related to the sheltering of migrants in Boston Logan International Airport, calling the practice "reckless and offensive."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, intends to subpoena Massport for documents Republicans on the committee requested last year about the use of facilities to allow migrants to shelter at the airport.
"Donald Trump put a stop to Biden’s open border policy, but a full investigation of this scandal is vital to both prevent its future reemergence and hold accountable those complicit in Biden’s lawless immigration orders," Cruz told Fox News Digital.
In a letter in March last year, lawmakers pointed to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grants Logan had received, and said that one of the obligations of such funding was that facilities be available for public use. They argued that the use of facilities to house migrants violated that condition.
Migrants were camped out at the airport on a daily basis on the floors of Terminal E at the airport at the height of the migrant crisis, which quickly saw migrants travel to "sanctuary" cities that limit cooperation with ICE.
"Frankly, what you’ve seen at Logan has been the situation, and this is why I said months ago that we are reaching capacity here," Gov. Maura Healey said in January 2024.
In July, migrants were barred from using the airport as a shelter, and instead were offered taxpayer-funded accommodation elsewhere.
"As of July 9, 2024, there was a policy change announced by the state that migrant families could no longer stay overnight at Logan, and no families have stayed at Logan since then," a spokesperson for Massport told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Lawmakers on the Commerce Committee wanted to know how many migrants were housed, the related costs, the impact on capacity, screening information and how the port authority was reimbursed, if at all. But the committee says it did not receive a response.
A committee aide told Fox News Digital that the committee is subpoenaing documents and communications related to the house of illegal immigrants at Logan, including communications with government agencies, nonprofits and healthcare providers. It will also seek documents about security incidents involving migrants, and documents identifying those involved in housing them.
"As the investigation has already shown, Massport clearly violated FAA grant requirements when it used Logan International Airport as ‘free’ housing for illegal aliens," Cruz told Fox.
"Massport has repeatedly refused the Committee’s request for information, including on potential security incidents. As Chairman of the Committee with jurisdiction over civil aviation and aviation security, I plan to issue a subpoena to compel Massport to turn over the information and communications we’ve been seeking for almost a year," he said.
"Using a federally-funded public airport to house illegal aliens was reckless and offensive to airline passengers and American taxpayers alike," he said.
The subpoena comes as the Trump administration has taken an aggressive approach to cracking down on illegal immigration. It has increased interior enforcement, including in sanctuary cities like Boston, while limiting the ability to release migrants into the interior. It has also deployed the military to the border and ended the Biden-era use of humanitarian parole to release migrants.
Interior arrests have gone up, while border crossings have dropped sharply, which the administration is putting down to the impact of the new policies.
FIRST ON FOX: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson are demanding the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) turn over records relating to former President Joe Biden’s use of a personal email address to conduct official government business and relating to his family’s financial dealings.
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Johnson, R-Wis., penned a letter to the acting general counsel of NARA demanding the records, which they have been seeking from the agency since 2021.
"Since 2021, we have conducted oversight of Joe Biden’s use of multiple pseudonyms and personal email addresses for official government business when he served as vice president," they wrote. "Despite our multiple requests for information, the Biden White House failed to respond."
Grassley and Johnson reminded that they have sent five letters to NARA requesting documents that they say are "vital" to their oversight work.
"Although former President Biden is no longer in office and he pardoned his son Hunter and other family members, we believe it is of importance to review these records so the American people have a full accounting of Joe Biden and his family’s activities while Joe Biden was in government," they wrote.
The senators are demanding all records in NARA’s possession referencing Hunter Biden and his business partners, including Devon Archer and Christopher Heinz; their Chinese and Russian business associates; and their joint-ventures and groups that they worked with, including Rosemont Seneca, Rosemont Capital, Bohai Harvest, Blue Star Strategies, CEFC China Energy, Hudson West and more.
They also are demanding records of to or from the office of the vice president — when Biden was serving in the Obama administration — referencing those individuals and those companies.
Grassley and Johnson also are demanding all records including Joe Biden’s pseudonyms and email addresses, including: "[email protected]; [email protected]; JRB Ware; and 67stingray."
They also want "all records encompassed in the nine boxes of records."
Grassley and Johnson have been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings since 2019. Specifically, the senators were investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings.
Grassley and Johnson released a report in September 2020 saying that Obama administration officials "knew" that Hunter Biden’s position on the board of Burisma was "problematic" and that it interfered "in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine."
Hunter Biden joined Burisma in April 2014 and, at the time, reportedly connected the firm with consulting firm Blue Star Strategies to help the natural gas company fight corruption charges in Ukraine. During the time Hunter Biden was on the board of the company, Joe Biden was vice president and was running U.S.-Ukraine relations and policy for the Obama administration.
Meanwhile, Fox News Digital exclusively reported in 2023 that Biden, as vice president, used alias email accounts 327 times during a nine-year period — 2010 to 2019 — to correspond with his son and his business associate Eric Schwerin.
Most of that email traffic took place while Biden was vice president. Fifty four of the emails were "exclusively" between Joe Biden and Schwerin, who House Republicans describe as "the architect of the Biden family’s shell companies."
The information came amid the House Republican impeachment inquiry against Biden to determine whether he had any involvement in his son’s business dealings. Biden repeatedly denied having any involvement, despite evidence placing him at meetings and on phone calls with his son and his foreign business partners.
In 2024, House lawmakers released their final report, spanning 292 pages, saying that Biden had engaged in "impeachable conduct." They said he had "abused his office" and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."
Republicans said there is "overwhelming evidence" that Biden had participated in a "conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family." They alleged that the Biden family and their business associates had received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by "leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden."
In the summer of 2023, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal gun charges as part of a plea deal that collapsed before a federal judge in Delaware. In a stunning reversal, Hunter Biden was forced to plead not guilty and sat for a trial this year.
Before his trial for federal tax crimes, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty.
Before leaving office, Biden announced a blanket pardon for his son, applying to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.
Biden’s pardon of his son came after months of vowing to the American people that he would not do so.
And hours before leaving office on Jan. 20, the president issued pardons for his brother Jim Biden and brother's wife, Sara Jones Biden; younger sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband, John Owens; and his brother Francis Biden.
The president argued that his family could be subject to "politically motivated investigations" after he left office.
Mark Cuban admitted this weekend that "Democrats can’t sell" and that President Donald Trump is a master at marketing, saying he is better than Paris Hilton and Dennis Rodman.
Cuban, who during the 2024 presidential campaign served as one of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ top allies and campaign surrogates, also revealed he told Harris advisors to "not even try" advising him on messaging.
"Donald Trump is a great salesperson, he really is a great marketer," he said.
Motioning with his hands, Cuban continued: "I’d put him up there, Donald Trump, then Paris Hilton, then Dennis Rodman."
The comparison drew laughs from the crowd at the "Principles First" summit in Washington, D.C., to which Cuban responded, "Seriously!"
"I mean those two below are some of the best marketers I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and Donald Trump surpassed them," he said.
Cuban, who is a businessman, TV personality and co-owner of the Dallas Mavericks, emerged as one of Harris’ most fierce supporters during the 2024 campaign. He received a lot of backlash when he appeared to insult pro-Trump women by suggesting that Trump never surrounds himself with "strong, intelligent women."
Despite this, he had some brutal words to say about Democratic messaging and ineptitude on Saturday.
"I learned that Democrats can’t sell worth s---," he laughed, according to other clips that surfaced from the weekend summit. "They’re so persnickety about every little detail, and that’s why Republicans at the presidential level — I don’t want to say kicked their a-- because it wasn’t a runaway — but yeah."
Cuban said that Democrats "had no idea" how to communicate their policies to moderates and small business owners.
"If you gave the Democrats a dollar bill and said: ‘You can sell these for 50 cents,’ they would hire 50 people to try to do it and then would not know how to sell the dollar bill for 50 cents," he continued. "If you gave it to Donald Trump and said, ‘Sell this dollar bill for $2,’ he’d figure out a way, right? He’d tell you that $2 bill is, you know, huge. … That’s the problem, and that’s what I learned."
He revealed that during the campaign, he told Harris staffers to not even try sharing campaign advice with him.
"It got to the point where after the first event I went to, I said to the Harris people: ‘You’re not allowed to say a word to me. I don’t care what you think. I’m just going to do what I think is right,’" said Cuban.
"That in essence is how Donald Trump has become so successful," he continued. "Because he’s able to put out messages and people see in him what they want to see."
Cuban proceeded to caution that he believes Trump is "still in the salesmanship stage" and his ability to message effectively "doesn’t mean that he can execute on them."
"I think now people are starting to ask: ‘OK, its great to sell it. Now can you execute it on it?'" he said.
President Donald Trump warned that federal employees who don’t follow new guidance requiring them to report personal productivity could lose their jobs.
The effort stems from an email SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk spearheaded that asked federal workers to send an email Monday detailing a summary of what tasks they accomplished the previous week. Musk is heading up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency that is aiming to reduce government waste and fraud.
"I thought it was great," Trump told reporters of the initiative Monday at the White House. "Because we have people who don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government so by asking the question 'tell us what you did this week,' what [Musk’s] doing is saying ‘are you actually working?’ If you don't answer, you’re sort of semi-fired or you're fired. Because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist."
Musk unveiled the email in a post on X on Saturday, and cautioned that a failure to reply was equivalent to handing in a resignation.
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
Federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel and Management on Saturday, where they were instructed to provide a list of five things they accomplished the previous week with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday.
The American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union for federal workers, criticized the policy and said that Trump and his administration have once again demonstrated "utter disdain" for federal employees.
"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," American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley in a Saturday statement.
The federation "will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country," Kelley said.
Meanwhile, multiple agencies have issued instructions telling their employees to disregard Musk’s guidance.
For example, the Department of Defense issued a letter to its civilian personnel asserting the Pentagon’s autonomy on Sunday and directing employees to ignore Musk’s request to send details of their work week to the Office of Personnel Management.
"DoD personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information," wrote Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures.
"When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM," he wrote. "For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled, ‘What did you do last week.’"
FBI Director Kash Patel also issued a similar directive to his staff and said that the agency "will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures," according to the Associated Press.
DOGE, which is tasked with weeding out government overspending, is facing multiple lawsuits from government employees seeking to challenge Musk’s efforts to audit various federal agencies.
Fox News' Greg Wehner, Jennifer Griffin and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Elon Musk is taking his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for a victory lap, touting a new poll that suggests massive support for the Trump administration initiative.
The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll revealed a majority of Americans support reducing wasteful government spending. Most voters agree there should be a government agency dedicated to efficiency and that DOGE is helping to make major spending cuts, the nonprobability-based poll found.
"Polls show that @DOGE is overwhelmingly POPULAR and that government spending should be reduced by at least $1 trillion!!" Musk wrote on X.
The White House and Musk have shared the results on social media, pointing to the new polling as evidence that "reducing government waste & fraud is strongly supported by the people," as Musk wrote in an X post.
The Harvard CAPS-Harris found a majority of voters believe the government’s debt is unsustainable, and the government should work to cut expenses. A vast majority agreed "government expenditures are filled with waste and agree with cutting $1 trillion in expenses."
Most people polled said DOGE employees should not have access to Americans' sensitive information and that court challenges to DOGE are based on the law and are not politically motivated.
Recent national polling suggests Musk and DOGE have garnered the support of Republicans and the disapproval of Democrats.
The Feb. 13-19 Washington Post-Ipsos pollwas less favorable for Musk and his "DOGE boys," as approval split along ideological lines, with 70% of Republicans and just 6% of Democrats approving of Musk’s job. Fewer Republicans, at 56%, approved of Musk halting federal government programs.
55% of voters said Musk had too much power in a Quinnipiac University pollreleased Feb. 19. Once again, the results fall upon party lines, with 78% of Republicans polled saying Musk has the right amount of power and 96% of Democrats saying he has too much power.
The AP-NORC poll released Jan. 24, also found Republicans are more likely to favor DOGE than Democrats. However, the poll found the majority of the public "believe corruption, inefficiency and red tape are major problems in the federal government," which is consistent with the new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
A CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that 54% of voters said Musk's prominent role in Trump's administration is a "bad thing."
Musk's posts celebrating his new favorable polling come on the heels of his latest DOGE initiative. Federal employees received an email on Saturday, instructing them to email "what they got done last week" or lose their job.
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk said.
"To be clear, the bar is very low here. An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write," Musk added.
Darin Selnick of the Department of Defense and Kash Patel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told their employees they did not need to comply with Musk's request. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy followed the assignment, submitting his accomplishments in a post.
"Mr. President, 5 things I did last week… Looking forward to another week of fighting for Americans," Duffy wrote.
Trump said Musk is "doing a great job" in a Truth Social post ahead of Musk's new email directive, adding he would "like to see him get more aggressive."
DOGE's jarring revelations about where American taxpayer dollars are going have dominated headlines during Trump's first month back in the White House. Republicans have embraced Musk's commitment to government efficiency as many new cabinet members and Republican governors establish their own DOGE departments.
Meanwhile, Musk's massive layoffs of government employees and department cuts have created outrage among Democrats in Washington. Democrats have led weekly protests against DOGE and Musk's political power, calling Trump's executive actions a "constitutional crisis."
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is being accused of violating ethics rules after backing laws that financially benefited his wife's environmental organization.
The Democratic senator and climate hawk voted for key laws that provided funding for grants to the environmental non-profit group that works with his wife, Sandra Whitehouse, and pays her through a consulting firm.
The ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), is asking the Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chairman Chris Coons, D-Del., to investigate Whitehouse "to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest." The group works primarily to draw attention to potential Democratic lawmaker ethics violations.
Whitehouse's wife, Sandra, is employed as president of consulting firm Ocean Wonks LLC and has been since 2017, per her LinkedIn page. Before that, she was a direct employee of Ocean Conservancy, serving as Senior Policy Adviser beginning in 2008.
Ocean Conservancy has received more than $14.2 million in federal grants since 2008, per USASpending.gov. During 2024 alone, it was given two sizable grants, one for $5.2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for marine debris cleanup in September and another for $1.7 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), again to assist with marine debris cleanup.
The former was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) championed by the Biden administration and voted for by Sen. Whitehouse. The latter was funded through the EPA’s annual appropriations bill, which Whitehouse also voted for.
"While these two grants alone appear to be a conflict of interest, it is even more egregious in the context of Senator Whitehouse’s long history of working on legislation being lobbied for by organizations tied to his wife," wrote FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold.
"Altogether, Ocean Conservancy has spent millions on federal lobbying expenses over the years on issues relating to oceans, climate change, and environmental cleanup—issues directly championed by Senator Whitehouse, a longtime member (and current Ranking Member) of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee and the co-founder of the Senate’s so-called 'Oceans Caucus."
Since 2010, Ocean Conservancy has paid Whitehouse a total of $2,686,800 either directly or through her firm, per tax documents.
"Dr. Sandra Whitehouse, a well-respected marine ecologist and ocean policy consultant, has not received compensation from these federal grants allocated to Ocean Conservancy," Ocean Conservancy’s Vice President of External Affairs Jeff Watters told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"For 40 years, Ocean Conservancy has been a global leader in marine debris cleanup through our signature initiative, the International Coastal Cleanup. The marine debris cleanup grants Ocean Conservancy received from NOAA came from laws passed with broad bipartisan support that then went through a competitive, independent selection process which designated Ocean Conservancy to be one among hundreds of NGOs to receive funding. Ocean Conservancy’s selection was based on our decades of expertise in addressing marine debris and protecting the ocean."
"With the support of these bipartisan federal funds, Ocean Conservancy plans to remove hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from beaches and waterways around the U.S., which will not only protect these places for generations of Americans to enjoy but improve the health of our fishing and tourism industries," he said.
Watters further pointed to the notable Republican support both the BIL and the EPA appropriations bill received in the Senate.
Whitehouse, Lankford and Coons did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication.
-US-Ukraine rift breaks out at United Nations on third anniversary of war
-New DOGE bill would target more than $200B in annual improper payments from safety nets, lawmaker says
Elon Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), warned federal workers on Monday morning that those who fail to return to the office will be placed on administrative leave.
"Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning," Musk wrote on X, the platform which he also owns. "Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave."
Musk’s warning comes after he announced Saturday that federal employees must report their accomplishments from the last week or face losing their jobs…Read more
