On Saturday afternoon, U.S. government employees received an email instructing them to list their weekly accomplishments or resign, marking the latest move in the Trump administration's campaign to target the federal workforce.

This email followed a tweet from billionaire Trump confidante Elon Musk, who announced that employees would "shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week." He added, "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

Musk has been spearheading an external effort to drastically reduce government spending through budget cuts and layoffs.

The email, arriving shortly after Trump's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), bore the subject line "What did you do last week?" and was sent from an address labeled HR.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's HR agency, confirmed the email's authenticity in a statement to CBS, the BBC's U.S. news partner. "As part of the Trump Administration's commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday, CC'ing their manager. Agencies will determine any next steps."

A copy of the email, obtained by the BBC, instructed employees to detail their accomplishments from the past week in five bullet points—excluding classified information—before midnight on Monday. It did not specify whether failure to respond would be considered a resignation.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal employees, condemned the message as "cruel and disrespectful," vowing to challenge any "unlawful terminations" of federal workers. Union president Everett Kelley stated, "Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people."

Newly-confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel advised his employees to "pause any responses" to the OPM memo. In an email obtained by CBS News, Patel wrote, "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."

Earlier in the day, Trump emphasized workforce reductions and told CPAC attendees that federal employees' work had been inadequate, partially due to remote work. "We're removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent, and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce," he said at the annual conference in suburban Washington.

"We want to make government smaller, more efficient," Trump added. "We want to keep the best people, and we're not going to keep the worst people."

Elon Musk's team, with White House approval, has implemented extensive changes to the U.S. federal infrastructure through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Thousands of employees from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Pentagon, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), among other agencies, have been fired in recent weeks.

This email resembles Musk's approach with employees after acquiring Twitter in 2022. Under his ownership, he issued ultimatums, including the now-infamous request to commit to being "extremely hardcore" at work or resign.

Trump has consistently praised Musk's efforts to reduce the size of the federal government. In a Truth Social post, Trump lauded Musk for doing a "great job" in cutting government size and expressed his desire for Musk to "get more aggressive" in this pursuit.