Try to Make Any Sense of What Trump Says When Asked About Elon’s Email

Federal workers have alleged the threat was illegal; meanwhile, Trump said that there was “a lot of genius in sending it,” because it would help root out what he described as nonexistent government workers.

“You know why he wanted that, by the way? I thought it was great, because we have people who don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government,” Trump said. “So, by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’ And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.

“That’s how badly various parts of our government were run by, and especially by this last group. So, what they’re doing is trying to find out who’s working for the government, are we paying other people that aren’t working, and where is all this—where has the money gone?”