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President Donald Trump posted an edited SpongeBob Squarepants meme in response to outrage over billionaire Elon Musk's demand that federal workers explain what they did at work last week.
Trump, 78, appeared to back Musk, 53, and his newly launched Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by sharing the meme on his Truth Social account after an email sent out by the Office of Personnel Management asked employees to list five tasks they accomplished from the previous week prior to a deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Monday (February 24), with Musk later claiming on X that he assumed those who didn't respond to the email were resigning. The meme showed SpongeBob in deep thought while holding a pad of paper and a pencil, while his friend, Patrick Star, had a list entitled "Got Done Last Week," which included bullet points of "Cried about Trump," "cried about Elon," "Made it into the office for once," "Read some emails," "Cried about Trump and Elon some more."
Musk also shared the same meme on his X account, as well as his claim that the "email is a very basic pulse check," after a user claiming to be an Ex-Tesla employee said he had previously replied "sounds good, carry on" to a similar request.
The American Federation of Government Employees, however, disagreed.
“We believe that employees have no obligation to respond to this unlawful email absent other lawful direction,” said AFGE national president Everett Kelley, who represents 800,000 workers.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) was also critical of the email, referring to it as "the ultimate d**k boss move from Musk" in a post on her X account.
“I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss — there’s an email in your inbox on Saturday night saying, ‘Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else.’ I’m on the side of the workers, not the billionaire a**hole bosses,” she wrote.