On Saturday, Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) launched a rather ineffective broadside at DOGE chief Elon Musk. She should know when she’s fighting out of her weight class, but Elon Musk quickly provided a lesson. First, Senator Smith took to X to lambaste a message Elon sent out to the federal workforce; her message carried an emotional age of about 12.
This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick. pic.twitter.com/3fSs2ud7Cz
— Senator Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) February 23, 2025
Elon Musk wasted no time in firing back:
What did you get done last week?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
That’s the best one – direct and to the point – but Elon wasn’t done yet. He replied to some of Senator Smith’s other critics as well, and there were a lot of critics.
This email is a very basic pulse check https://t.co/4qEKErwSuE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
“Pulse-check” is an apt metaphor. If someone doesn’t respond, they aren’t paying attention. If they aren’t paying attention, they aren’t doing whatever it is their job is. If they aren’t doing their job, they don’t need to be receiving a paycheck from the American taxpayers. Street ’em.
The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!
In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used… https://t.co/Rj5Xe6vYZB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
RedState’s own Susie Moore chimed in as well:
I practiced law for almost 30 years. I had to document my accomplishments daily – in 6-minute increments.
People flipping out over a simple request like @elonmusk made sound like entitled brats.
— Susie Moore ⚾️🌻🐶 (@SmoosieQ) February 23, 2025
This is not at all an uncommon practice. I worked as an independent corporate consultant for over 15 years, and while not all of my clients requested such an accounting, it wasn’t at all uncommon to have one request documentation in 15- or 30-minute intervals. It’s just not that onerous a task, and in a mammoth organization like the federal government, it will certainly provide a great tool for sorting the wheat from the chaff.
And there’s almost certainly a LOT of chaff, even after the Trump administration’s first month of effort.
