U.S. President Donald Trump held the first cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday (February 2). Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), attended the event wearing a T-shirt with "TECH SUPPORT" written on it. He explained that the recent reorganization of federal agency personnel was for the good of the United States. "If we don't do this, the United States will go bankrupt."
According to media reports, a reporter asked Musk if he knew that any cabinet members of the Trump administration were dissatisfied with his recent restructuring plan? As Musk prepared to answer, Trump interrupted him and said, "Elon (Musk), let the cabinet members speak for themselves."
Trump jokingly asked all the officials present, "Is there anyone who is unhappy with Elon? If so, I will kick them out." The scene immediately broke out into laughter, but no one answered the question, but responded with applause.
Trump went on to say, "They all respect Elon for doing this. Some people disagree with him a little bit, but I can tell you that most people, probably everyone, are not just happy, but very excited."
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Last weekend, Musk issued an ultimatum to all federal employees, requiring them to reply to emails and submit a report on the highlights of the past week's work before midnight on Monday, otherwise they would be fired. This email triggered different responses from many departments. Some department heads asked employees to "ignore" the email, while other heads said that they would not force employees to reply to the email.
Musk explained on Wednesday that the email was just a "pulse check" to see if there were fictitious or long-dead federal employees who were still collecting paychecks.
Trump supported Musk, saying that about 100 million federal employees did not respond to Musk's email and they were likely to be laid off.
