Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich Grills Trump Spox Over Elon Musk ‘Confusing’ Email Demands: ‘Should DOGE Hire a Spokesperson?’

Fox News Senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich grilled White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt over contradictory messages from President Donald Trump’s administration over Elon Musk’s email demands.

The Elon Musk “chainsaw” approach to government has sparked confusion as Musk doubled down on the emails that sparked a revolt at various agencies — a demand for five “bullet points” on what they did the past week, or else.

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Heinrich pressed Leavitt about the contradictory messages from department heads and Musk, and asked if maybe DOGE needs to “hire a spokesperson”:

JACQUI HEINRICH: Thank you. About the deadline. Alina Habba said that, you have until tonight. Elon Musk said a failure to respond a second time would result in termination.

So is that a real deadline? Should federal workers be looking to that guidance, or should they be looking to the agency heads. Like what is the actual deadline?

KAROLINE LEAVITT: So again, the agency heads will determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies. Again, this was an idea that Elaine–. Elon, come up with DOJ’s work with OPM to actually implement the idea.

And the secretaries are responsible for their specific workforce. And this is true of the hirings and the firings that have taken place. And we advise federal workers, unless your agency has dictated you not to, to respond to this email.

In fact, I can announce that we’ve had more than 1 million workers who have chosen to participate in this very simple task of, again, sending five bullet points to your direct supervisor or manager cc’ing OPM. I actually participated it in myself.

It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about ten minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working and moving.

We have a country to save. And we want this federal government to be responsive to the needs of the American people who reelected this president to have historic, massive reform. And that’s what the intention of this idea is.

JACQUI HEINRICH: Can you clarify one thing, though, because Elon Musk also said that a reason that they wanted this five things email was just to see if people are actually alive, citing that there are some workers who might not even be alive.

So meantime, NBC is reporting that these responses are going to go into an AI generator to evaluate whether these jobs are necessary.

So is it just to see if people are actually working, or is it an effort to maybe cut some of those jobs?

KAROLINE LEAVITT: I have not seen that NBC news report, and I haven’t heard that from DOGE or from Elon himself. Again, this is to ensure that federal workers are not ripping off American taxpayers, that they are showing up to the office and that they are doing their jobs.

That’s what the American people expect, and it’s a very simple task to complete. I did it myself, and I was more than happy to do it, because I’m very grateful that I am serving the American people on the American taxpayers dime.

JACQUI HEINRICH: Should DOGE hire a spokesperson just so that Elon Musk doesn’t put out tweets that then confuse federal workers?

KAROLINE LEAVITT: My press briefings not good enough for you, Jacqui?

Watch above via Fox News.