President Donald Trump mocked federal workers who were up in arms about Elon Musk's recent moves to reduce the federal workforce on Sunday, posting an edited screenshot from an episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" to Truth Social.
Government employees were asked in a Saturday email to share a list of what they had worked on the previous week. The message from the Office of Personnel Management appears to be the brainchild of DOGE head Musk, who said on X that failure to respond would count as a resignation.
Trump shared an image of the absorbent, yellow and porous icon puzzling over a notepad with a pencil in his hand. The second image shows a list of accomplishments — written by SpongeBob's friend Patrick Star — that included "cried about Trump" and "made it to the office for once."
The post came after several agency heads, including recently confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, encouraged their staff to ignore the emails.
In a letter to OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell, the American Federation of Government Employees called the request "plainly unlawful."
"The email fails to identify any legal authority permitting OPM to demand the requested information... Federal employees report to their respective agencies through their established chains of command; they do not report to OPM," they wrote. "OPM has not assessed the cost to the government resulting from this thoughtless email. By issuing this directive, OPM is actively pulling federal employees away from their critical duties without regard for the consequences."
