The Trump administration snubbed Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency again this week, planning as soon as Tuesday to axe the program requiring federal government workers to summarize five things they achieved at work the previous week, Reuters reported.
Two sources told the outlet that the Office of Personnel Management, which oversaw the program at Musk’s direction and essentially functions as the federal government’s human-resources agency, plans to announce the end of the “five things” email to human resources offices across different agencies on Tuesday.
Newsweek reached out to SpaceX and the White House for comment via email on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
The end of the “five things” email marks a shift in the Trump administration’s approach to federal workforce management, though Musk’s initiative had already started dying out by the time he left the government at the end of May.
Musk’s email mandate raised alarms with senior-level staffers across the government and also fostered discontent, administrative strain and legal scrutiny within federal agencies, particularly those tasked with overseeing national security and defense-related issues.
What To Know
Musk first launched the “five things” email in late February while spearheading DOGE’s efforts to slash the government workforce. He announced the initiative on his social media website, X, and said failure to reply to the email would be “taken as a resignation.”
The announcement was in line with Musk’s view of his own role as pursuing aggressive reductions in staff and spending across the government. But his email mandate ran up against significant pushback from agencies across the government. It was also a blow to the morale of federal workers who had already been under a tremendous amount of strain amid Trump and Musk’s drastic cuts.
The Trump administration’s move to formally phase out the emails comes as the president’s personal relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO continues to cool down after Musk publicly torched Trump’s flagship One Big Beautiful Bill Act. His criticisms prompted Trump’s allies in the MAGA universe to call for Musk’s deportation, which Trump said last month he would “have to look” into.
What People Are Saying
OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement that OPM informed agency leads it would no longer “manage” the process “nor utilize it internally,” adding: “At OPM, we believe that managers are accountable to staying informed about what their team members are working on and have many other existing tools to do so.”
NewsNation’s Kevin Bohn wrote on X: “Bye Bye 5 Things. One of the most well-known & most despised of Elon Musk’s DOGE days – requiring federal workers to send an email each week listing their five accomplishments – is no more. The new head of the Office of Personnel Management told the fed workforce around 1pm.”
What Happens Next
Musk’s “five things” initiative has officially been shut down as of Tuesday afternoon.
Update 8/5/25, 5:16 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and context.
