Trump says Elon Musk's demand that federal employees prove they're working was 'genius'
Trump told reporters today that Elon Musk's directive to federal employees over the weekend telling them to share five things they had accomplished in their jobs last week was "genius."
"We have people that don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government," he said in an appearance with Macron in the Oval Office.
He continued, "They’re trying to find out who’s working for the government. Are we paying other people that aren’t working? ... Where’s the money going?"
"There was a lot of genius in sending it," he added. "We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people: Please tell us what you did last week. If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working."
Federal workers and agencies push back against Elon Musk’s email ultimatum
An Elon Musk ultimatum demanding that federal workers report what they had accomplished last week or lose their jobs is facing pushback leading up to a midnight deadline to respond.
A coalition of unions and groups that have been fighting the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of probationary workers amended its lawsuit against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management over the weekend to allege that the agency's email directing workers to justify their workweek was unlawful.
Some agencies, including ones led by close Trump allies, have told their employees to ignore the directive.
Judge blocks Department of Education, federal personnel office from sharing data with DOGE
A federal judge in Maryland has blocked the Department of Education and Office of Personnel Management from sharing the personal information of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Trump administration with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman issued a temporary restraining order Monday on both agencies and wrote in an opinion that the plaintiffs in the case, which include members of several major unions, showed that the Education Department and OPM “likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent.”
Boardman wrote that the plaintiffs “met their burden for the extraordinary relief they seek” by clearly showing that they are “likely to suffer irreparable harm without injunctive relief.”
Judiciary employees received email asking for a list of accomplishments
Judicial branch employees have received the Office of Personnel Management email requesting that federal workers send bulleted list of what they accomplished last week.
Other news outlets previously reported that judicial employees had received the email. The email was sent en masse to executive branch workers, NBC News and other organizations have reported.
It is unclear how many judiciary employees nationwide have received the email, but spokespeople for federal courts in Manhattan and the Northern District of Illinois confirmed to NBC News that “some” had gotten it.
When asked whether judges or other judicial employees received the email, a spokesperson for the Manhattan federal court told NBC News that “both received the email,” adding that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which supports the federal judiciary, sent an email about it over the weekend.
Julie Hodek, a spokesperson for the Northern District of Illinois, also confirmed the email, saying the court's chief judge and clerk "communicated with the staff that as we are judiciary employees, our policies and procedures are governed by the Judicial Conference of the United States and our local court HR handbooks."
"Our communication was then followed up by a memo from the Director’s Office of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts that reinforced the same message,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts declined to comment.
NBC News has reached out to the Office of Personnel Management to ask whether judicial employees were supposed to have received the email.
DeSantis launches state DOGE task force
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that his administration will launch a task force modeled after the Department of Government Efficiency created by President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
"We are creating a state DOGE task force that will implement a multipronged approach to eliminating bureaucratic bloat and modernizing our state government to best serve the people of Florida in the years ahead," DeSantis said today at a press conference in Tampa.
DeSantis said the task force would be "similar to the federal DOGE" and that it would exist only for a "limited amount of time."
"It will be a one-year term, it will sunset following the completion of the mission," DeSantis said.
He added that his administration had already "earmarked" 70 state boards and commissions for abolishment by the task force. DeSantis did not say who would serve on the task force.
The move will make Florida the latest state to mimic the White House's DOGE, the outside advisory commission that Trump put Musk in charge of to find ways to cut federal spending.
Prior to DeSantis' announcement, governors and lawmakers in at least 11 other states had attempted to create their own version of DOGE since Trump won the November election.
U.S. in standoff with Ukraine and Europe over competing U.N. resolutions about Russia-Ukraine war
The United States is lobbying countries around the world to oppose a resolution brought forward at the U.N. General Assembly by Ukraine and European countries on the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine and support a U.S. draft resolution instead.
The brief U.S. resolution seen by NBC News is three sentences calling for a “swift end to the conflict” between Ukraine and Russia.
An internal memo sent to all U.S. diplomatic posts Saturday instructed the head of each U.S. mission to “engage host governments at the highest possible levels,” and urge them to support the U.S. resolution and encourage Ukraine to withdraw their own resolution, “which does not advance the United States’ goal of achieving a lasting peace.”
NYC Mayor Adams to close hotel migrant center targeted by Musk and Trump
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced today that the city will close the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel, the target of frequent criticism from Elon Musk and the Trump administration.
Over 173,000 migrants completed registrations at the Manhattan hotel since its opening in May 2023, accounting for nearly three quarters of the 232,000 migrants who entered the city since the spring of 2022, the Adams administration reported.
“While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort,” Adams said Monday in a statement.
Musk demands federal employees list accomplishments or lose job
Elon Musk faces new resistance from inside the Trump administration over an ultimatum he sent to more than 2 million federal workers, asking them to justify their work or resign. Some agencies told employees to either delay responding or not to respond at all. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for "TODAY."
Supreme Court rejects challenges to abortion clinic ‘buffer zone’ laws that restrict protesters
The Supreme Court declined to consider overturning a 25-year-old precedent that upheld “buffer zone” laws limiting how close protesters can get to abortion clinic entrances.
In a setback for abortion opponents, the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority hostile to abortion rights, opted against weighing whether such laws violate the free speech rights of protesters under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Newly appointed FBI deputy director called for firing everyone involved in Mar-a-Lago documents search
Dan Bongino, who will serve as the deputy director of the FBI, has called for everyone “from the management down to the agents” to be fired over their involvement in the 2022 search of Trump’s estate in Mar-a-Lago.
“EVERYONE involved in this DOJ/FBI abomination, from the management down to the agents, must be immediately terminated when the tyrants are thrown out of office,” Bongino posted to X in 2022.
Bongino, a conservative podcaster, has also given air time to people who mischaracterized the FBI’s standard use-of-force documentation in connection with the classified documents case against Trump, which has since been dismissed.
“It was not a standard op," Bongino claimed in a post in May of last year. "The MAL raid was an unprecedented action with significant potential for confusion and blue on blue issues and conflict. It also involved competing equities between federal agencies (FBI & USSS) with equal statutory claims to interrupt the other’s activities.