Trump's week in review: Showdown with Zelensky, DOGE continues cuts

'You're gambling with World War III'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, March 01, 2025

4. 'Pulse check': Musk and DOGE continue cuts

As Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continue to find ways to cut government spending, thousands of federal workers faced layoffs and were asked to explain what they accomplished in the past week by a human resources email at the Office of Personnel Management.

The email drew outrage from some federal employees, and some agency heads instructed their employees not to respond to the OPM inquiry.

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Musk, who attended the first cabinet meeting of Trump's second administration, described the email to the press as "a pulse check."

"It was interpreted as a performance review, but it was really a pulse-check review," he said. "If you have a pulse and two neurons, you can reply to an email. This is not a high bar. We think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are either dead or some people who are collecting paychecks on fictional individuals."

DC Correspondent @CBedfordDC: "About half of government employees have responded to your request for what they've been doing the past week. Is there a timeline in place for next moves?"@elonmusk: "It was interpreted as a performance review, but it was really a pulse-check… pic.twitter.com/rpw8ukDJyL

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 26, 2025

"We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to," Trump said during the cabinet meeting. "We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job." Firing of probationary employees in the federal government began earlier this month.

On Feb. 27, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies to fire its probationary employees who typically have less than a year of experience.

According to a Feb. 26 memo from the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget, agencies were directed to submit their plans for laying off employees and eliminating positions by March 13.