Lawsuits and court shopping looked to be an establishment flop as a report revealed the White House’s “new strategy” to hold federal employees accountable.
The efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency to uncover waste, fraud and abuse had thus far made Millennial and Gen Z private sector “quiet quitters” look like overachievers. Now, after a judge had determined the Office of Personnel Management didn’t have authority to fire federal employees amid requests for short lists of accomplishments for the week, unity behind President Donald Trump found the department heads ready to send out new emails with “fairly significant latitude.”
According to a report from The Washington Post, sources had revealed, under the typical condition of anonymity, that new emails were expected to go out to federal employees as soon as Saturday setting the expectation for weekly reports meeting the five bullet point criteria.
Noting how, “this time, a new strategy from the Trump administration means they might have to respond…” the Post detailed, “The emails are slated to become a weekly requirement, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and a person briefed on the Office of Personnel Management’s decisions. In part, the responses will serve to gauge agencies’ alignment with President Donald Trump’s agenda and executive orders…”
Already, the Department of Defense had jumped on the bandwagon issuing a memo to all civilian employees about the email they would receive March 3 seeking five bullets on their previous week’s achievements.”
“Non-compliance may lead to further review,” the memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made clear as the Department of Energy, Federal Election Commission and Veterans Health Administration had joined in sending a second email Friday asking, “What did you do last week? Part II.”
SECDEF released this memo directing all DoD employees to respond to the upcoming “What did you do last week?” email.
Happy to do it as often as required. https://t.co/h3MiqMBIc6 pic.twitter.com/9b9mPY7LCN
— Ray Alexander (@rma1776) February 28, 2025
Speaking with the Post, Partnership for Public Service President Max Stier expressed, “The president of the United States cannot fire a career employee, because they are not reporting to him.”
“But if an agency head says this is what all employees need to do,” he contended to the newspaper, “there is fairly significant latitude.”
Meanwhile, as the establishment and its myriad allies opposed accountability in the federal government, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled from San Francisco that OPM did not have the authority to conduct mass firings of probationary employees.
“I am going to count on the government to do the right thing and go a little bit further than I have ordered and to let some of these agencies know what I have ruled,” Alsup was quoted as saying while also referring to the workers as “the lifeblood of our government.”
The suit, brought in part by the American Federation of Government Employees and AFSCME, AFL-CIO, had been updated to include opposition to the emails from OPM expecting employees to produce a brief list of their accomplishments for the week.
During his first cabinet meeting Wednesday, where Elon Musk had reiterated that the initial email hadn’t been about the bullets, but rather focused on getting any response as a “pulse check,” Trump himself had noted, “Now, maybe they don’t exist.”
“Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist,” he added as he continued his favor for introducing private sector performance to the federal government.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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