Social Security hotline interrupted because workers have to 'write their Elon emails': report

24 February

Elon Musk speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 20, 2025.

Over the weekend, South African centibillionaire Elon Musk gave federal workers an ultimatum: Respond to an email asking what they accomplished at work this week, or risk losing their jobs. This has reportedly caused an interruption in services for at least one critical federal agency.

Talking Points Memo reported Monday that the 1-800 number for the Social Security Administration (SSA) was interrupted, as workers were expressly told they had to "write their Elon emails" even if they answered calls to the hotline. TPM founder Josh Marshall reported that Jill Hornick — a union representative for the American Federation of Government Workers (AFGE) Local 1395 chapter — confirmed that agency higher-ups expected hotline workers to take time way from their duties to respond to Musk's email.

Hornick specified to Marshall that hotline workers' schedules were being managed to ensure that desks would be manned throughout the day on Monday even as some workers stepped away from the phones to write their weekly work summaries. However, he noted that workers were somewhat caught off-guard by the response deadline, and that most calls to the hotline are from elderly people on fixed incomes having difficulty accessing the money they depend on to live.

"Needless to say, what’s created this crisis posture is the fact that all of this is being demanded on one day’s notice," Mrshall wrote. "According to the email, all the replies must be submitted no later than 11:59 PM tonight."

Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE (which is not yet an official federal agency authorized by Congress) sent the email on Saturday to the roughly two million federal workers over the weekend through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which effectively functions as the federal government's human resources department. TPM reporter Josh Kovensky posted to Bluesky that one unnamed "hill source" said that at least one federal judge also got the OPM email.

Some agencies have taken a different approach to the Musk email, with workers elsewhere being told they didn't have to respond to Musk's demands. And federal workers' unions have made it clear that they will have workers' backs if DOGE attempts to remove them for not complying with the ultimatum.

In an all-caps post to his Truth Social platform on Saturday, President Donald Trump made it clear he not only approves of what Musk is doing, but that he should "GET MORE AGGRESSIVE." He added that "WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE," though he didn't specify what he was attempted to save the country from.

Click here to read TPM's full report.

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