WASHINGTON, DC — On Monday, lawmakers in seven states received what many mistook for an early April Fool’s joke, with approximately 400 emails requesting that recipients provide a detailed account of at least five things they accomplished in their positions in the previous week.
The emails were sent by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump Administration’s Elon Musk-run investigative branch. They are part of a larger effort to “streamline” government operations.
The decision to “streamline” the legislative process at the state and federal levels was surprising. Musk appeared to indicate at a Wisconsin town hall meeting with supporters on Sunday that the Federal Reserve and the Department of Education would be next on the chopping block.
However, it appears that the feedback Musk received at that town hall meeting prompted the controversial billionaire to target the nation’s lawmakers.
“From what I’m hearing – and it’s not just in Wisconsin – people aren’t very happy with who they elected,” Musk said during a post-meeting media call. “They’ve got some pretty bad buyer’s remorse, and they want their money back.”
The first volley of emails arrived in the Wisconsin Legislature’s inboxes shortly after midnight on Monday. They were followed by emails to state legislatures in New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois, and Colorado.
Lawmakers in West Virginia, a state that Trump has won by a landslide in each of the last three presidential elections, received the seventh and, for the time being, final round of emails shortly before 9 a.m.
“Wisconsin loves us, we won here by a lot,” Musk informed the crowd. “They love what we’re doing, but they don’t love this woke free school lunch thing that the radical left is trying to push in the statehouse.”
Musk was referring to a bill introduced by Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly that would create a permanent school lunch reimbursement program for low-income families. The program would be overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), another agency on Musk’s radar.
“Wisconsinians are hardworking people,” Musk added. “They don’t want politicians handing out money to other people’s children simply because they are hungry. They only want the best and brightest, so we’re going to get rid of the bad apples and bring in people who will pass the laws we want.”
While Donald Trump won Wisconsin by a razor-thin margin in 2024, his victory in West Virginia was significant, prompting many in Charleston to question why Trump would unleash Musk and DOGE on the Mountain State.
“I don’t understand this at all,” one West Virginia delegate, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told RealWV Monday afternoon. “I purchased the Bible he was selling, and I’m wearing his damn sneakers. I even sleep wearing an oversized t-shirt with his mugshot on it. I don’t know why he abandoned me.”
Though several people at the Capitol expressed similar sentiments on Monday, one state senator, who spoke anonymously, was far more optimistic.
“It’s all part of Trump’s plan, and it’s not our place to question what that plan is,” according to the senator. “We must let our faith in Him guide us. He may sacrifice us now, but it will be for the benefit of all. I am confident that he will return and raise us up.
In addition to requesting a list of five things lawmakers have completed in the past week, the DOGE emails state that, “any lawmaker who has held their current position for 180-days or less is considered ‘probationary,’ and their current term of employment will now expire on Friday, April 4, 2025.”
“Failure to appropriately respond to this email will result in the immediate termination of your employment with the State Legislature/United States Senate/United States House of Representatives,” the email’s summary states.
While many of DOGE’s other firings across government agencies have been successfully challenged in court, the Trump administration has been slow to reinstate employees and continues to claim unlimited authority to carry out such terminations.
However, because neither state nor federal legislators work for the executive branch, their dismissal would almost certainly raise constitutional concerns. Although, according to Musk, such questions are irrelevant.
“I don’t care who they work for, we can fire them if we want to – the president can fire them,” Musk told the crowd. “The president can do whatever he wants, I’m the….he’s the president.”
West Virginia’s U.S. Senator Jim Justice and U.S. Congressman Riley Moore were both elected to their current positions on November 5, indicating that they are still well within the 180-day “probationary” period specified in DOGE’s email.
To make matters even more complicated, every other elected official in the state has only been in office since their most recent election, which means nearly 80% of West Virginia lawmakers could be told to clean out their desks on Friday.
“West Virginia is a pretty interesting case,” Musk added to reporters. “The lawmakers there claim they want to make America great again, but we’re not feeling the Trump-love. Even their own governor stated that the state legislature is doing nothing. That’s not how it should be.”
RealWV contacted DOGE via their official government X account to clarify what constitutes an elected official’s “employment start date,” but has yet to receive a response. RealWV will provide updates on this developing situation as more information becomes available.
