DOGE Staffers Resign Over Federal Job Cuts; Elon Musk Says They ‘Would Have Been Fired Anyway’

Key Takeaways

• Twenty-one members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have resigned.
• In their resignation letter, the DOGE staffers said they refused to “compromise core government systems” and “dismantle critical public services.”
• Musk has dismissed the walkouts, saying the departing staff would have been fired anyway.

In the latest sign of resistance to Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce, twenty-one Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees resigned on Tuesday, Feb. 25.

However, Musk insisted the walkouts were “Dem political holdovers who refused to return to the office” and would have been fired if they hadn’t resigned.

Musk Dismisses DOGE Walkouts

The letter from civil servants addressed to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was reportedly uploaded to WeTheBuilders.org but later taken down.

The resigning employees had previously worked for the United States Digital Service (USDS) and were among 65 USDS staff who remained after the White House technology unit was reorganized as the United States DOGE Service.

“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” the resignation letter stated.

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” it added. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

Responding to the walkouts in a post on X, Musk dismissed the story, first published by AP News, as “more fake news from Associated Propaganda.”

“These were Dem political holdovers who refused to return to the office,” he added, referring to a return to the office mandate DOGE has used to encourage federal workers to quit. “They would have been fired had they not resigned.”

List Accomplishments or Face Being Fired

The latest DOGE resignations came amid rising tensions between Elon Musk and Agency leaders.

On Saturday, Feb. 22, Musk posted on X: “All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.”

“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” he added.

Shortly after, employees of multiple federal agencies received a short email stating, “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”

They were given a deadline of Monday at 11:59 p.m. to respond. However, there was no mention of the forced resignation implied by Musk’s X post.

Musk Email Causes Rift With Agency Bosses

The latest DOGE directive faced immediate opposition from key agencies, suggesting growing resistance to Musk’s heavy-handed approach even among Trump appointees.

According to the Associated Press , the FBI, the State Department, Homeland Security, and the Pentagon instructed their staff not to comply with the email’s request.

In an email cited by Reuters, Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel stressed that “the FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all our review processes.”

Echoing the sentiment of many federal workers, a senior executive at the National Centers for Environmental Information complained that the email was “irregular and unexpected.”

Other agencies’ responses have been more chaotic.

The Department of Health and Human Services reportedly flip-flopped on Sunday.

First, acting general counsel Sean Keveney instructed some employees not to respond to the email. Shortly after, the department ordered its approximately 80,000 employees to comply.

Further guidance issued in the evening requested staff to “pause activities” related to the request until noon on Monday.

Trimming the Federal Workforce

Since entering the White House, Trump has moved quickly to defang what he views as the “deep state” by forcing out administrators who might stand in the way of his agenda.

The Office of Personnel Management on Jan. 28, offered most government employees the opportunity to leave their jobs in exchange for eight months of severance pay.

The message explained that all federal workers are expected to return to in-person work, per an Executive Order issued on Trump’s first day in office.

“If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal workforce, we thank you for your service to your country and you will be provided with a dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred resignation program,” the email stated.

A government spokesperson said that 75,000 workers opted to quit across dozens of federal agencies when the offer was available.

Trump Administration Begins Mass Layoffs

With the severance offer now revoked, the Trump administration has begun the next phase of its efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

Moving from the carrot to the stick, the administration began mass layoffs across multiple federal agencies on Feb. 20, ABC News reported .

Among the agencies impacted were the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of Personnel Management, the Environmental Protective Agency, the General Services Administration, and the Small Business Administration.

Running Government Like a Tech Company

Removing career federal employees allows the White House to restaff government agencies with more politically aligned workers who are loyal to Trump’s agenda.

The great downsize also reflects a tech sector ethos of relentless efficiency that has taken root in the new administration.

Silicon Valley giants like Google and Meta have routinely laid off staff over the years, often justifying redundancies with techspeak euphemisms like “lean” and “agile.”

Meanwhile, the government’s efforts to encourage voluntary resignations have a precedent in Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter.

After buying the platform in 2022, Musk infamously sent an email to staff demanding they commit to working “long hours at high intensity.”

Employees who didn’t consent to the new conditions were offered three months severance and shown the door.

In an interview with the BBC in 2023, Musk said he had reduced the company’s headcount by roughly 80%, down from around 8,000 to just 1,500.

At Tesla, Musk has also been known to impose sweeping layoffs without warning.

When the firm cut 10% of its workforce in 2024, Musk sent a memo to employees explaining that “as we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity.”

Replace the word “company” with “government” and the memo could easily be a communique from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

With 75,000 federal employees already out the door, project DOGE is already well on its way to halving the size of the government workforce.