Charlie Kirk on the Email That Exposed Federal Workers Who Can't Name Five Things They Do

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2,422 videos 1,389,747,653 views US Joined Aug 30, 2018

Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.

Charlie Kirk on the Email That Exposed Federal Workers Who Can't Name Five Things They Do

Charlie Kirk examines the controversy that erupted when federal workers were asked to list five accomplishments from their week. The simple request, sent to every federal employee, sparked outrage and mass refusal to respond. Kirk argues this reaction exposes a fundamental problem: millions of government workers operate in a protected class immune to basic accountability that every private sector employee faces daily. From McDonald's workers to Uber drivers, Americans justify their existence every single day—except those working cushy federal jobs funded by taxpayer dollars. Kirk connects this to the broader campus culture that has infected government institutions, creating safe spaces where simply asking "what do you do here?" becomes threatening.

February 24, 2025

The Email That Shook Washington

A singular email sent to every federal worker sparked a firestorm of controversy. The request was straightforward: list five bullet points of what you accomplished last week and copy your manager. No classified information, no attachments, just a simple accounting of your work. The deadline was set for Monday at 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.

As soon as this email went out, federal workers erupted in protest. They called it harassment, intimidation, and unfair treatment. The core complaint? No one has ever asked federal workers to explain what they actually do.

At Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, this type of accountability happens every single week. Taking a page from Elon Musk's playbook, the organization now requires employees to methodically list five things they accomplished. Federal workers, however, are claiming this violates union rules and creates a hostile work environment.

The Absurdity of the Controversy

The situation is beyond laughable—it's repulsive. These are jobs paid for by American taxpayers, yet the workers refuse to respond to a simple email asking them to list five accomplishments. The obvious answer is that they don't do anything of value. They show up, get coffee, reshuffle papers, attend conference rooms, and leave by 3:30 or 4:00 PM. They operate as parasites on the American taxpayer.

Meanwhile, every person in the private sector—whether doctor, lawyer, engineer, or any other profession—must justify their existence every single day. Even someone working at McDonald's can easily list five tasks: cleaning the fryer, scrubbing floors, making Big Macs, ensuring the soda machine works, and helping customers to their cars in the snow. A McDonald's employee earning twelve dollars an hour can concretely explain their daily contributions.

But millions of federal workers are mass refusing this basic inquiry. They claim it's intimidating and scary. They're not accustomed to anyone asking them questions about their work.

A Missed Opportunity

This could have been an opportunity for federal employees to showcase their value. They could proudly list their five accomplishments from the Department of Interior or Health and Human Services. The task takes approximately two minutes: list five things in bullet format. Can these people not format bullets? Can they not read?

The mass decision not to respond to this inquiry reveals everything. If work is classified, employees can simply say so. But chances are the work isn't classified at all. Chances are there's nothing substantial to report. These workers simply exist as leeches on taxpayers.

What This Reveals About Government Culture

This situation surfaces what Elon Musk and President Trump are flushing out. The criticism isn't just about individual workers, though many deserve scrutiny. Many couldn't hold jobs at a local Chipotle. Your local Uber Eats driver or Chipotle worker works their tail off every day. But federal workers have cushy jobs where nothing gets done.

These positions never should have existed in the first place. Both Republicans and Democrats—George W. Bush alongside Bill Clinton, Barack Obama alongside Joe Biden—have been protectorates of this bipartisan regime, the uniparty. Millions of jobs should not exist. Entire government departments are famously filled with people taking months to accomplish what would take a day in a startup or real company.

The fact that asking a federal worker to take five or two minutes to explain what they do has become such a controversy proves the culture in government is rotten. The media is going along with it. MSNBC ran headlines about Musk forcing federal workers to justify their jobs. Yes, that's how things work in the real world—not the fantasy world of government where money is running out.

Challenging the DC Orthodoxy

The key takeaway is this: President Trump, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Pete Hegseth are challenging the DC orthodoxy that government is untouchable. Government works for us. It is not a holy realm of existence immune to criticism or questioning.

The left will criticize every conservative nonprofit. They investigate Turning Point USA, document ballot chasers on the ground, and write exhaustively about right-wing organizations. But they will never criticize or ask questions about government itself.

This is not the government's money—it's our money. It's taxpayer money. We are a team together as taxpayers, and government has been taking advantage for decades.

The Campus-ification of America

Reading the email again raises the question: Is this intimidating? Does this require a safe space? This connects to the operating thesis from the book "The College Scam"—the college campus-ification of the entire country. You are not allowed to ask a junior at Yale what they learned. That's considered intimidation.

You're not allowed to have an exit test when leaving Stanford because that could be threatening. Safe spaces, speech codes, rooms with puppies and milk and cookies when something threatening is heard—these people are now staffing government.

What happens on college campuses doesn't stay there. It ends up in corporate boardrooms, the halls of Congress, and metastasizes into government. This is the same mentality that has been fought on college campuses for the last decade. We're finally starting to see a shift.

The Email One More Time

The email states: "Please reply to this email with approximately five bullet points of what you accomplished last week and CC your manager. Do not send any classified information, links, or attachments."

For every single person who has had a private sector job—millions listening and watching—you should be angered by this. These people think they are an untouchable holy class. They believe they have been given the divine right of kings. They think we serve at the pleasure of this oligarchy, that if you have a federal job, no one can ask questions or dare question your existence. We should just be lucky they'll acknowledge us.

Real World Examples

As someone who employs well over a thousand people, if America Fest were organized by the federal government, it would take four years to plan. It would cost five times as much, and there would be a single podium with five speakers.

The federal government is not just slow and bloated—it's largely 80 to 90 percent unnecessary. Of course there are core government functions that should exist, but the vast majority of these jobs should not. These workers are proving the point. They can't even respond to a crisp email explaining what they do and why they exist.

Your local school janitor can tell you what they do all day long. The person serving Starbucks coffee or Dunkin Donuts can detail their daily tasks. But the HR manager at the Department of Commerce claims it's against union rules.

The Fundamental Difference

The difference is crucial: when you go to Dunkin Donuts, that's a voluntary exchange. You decide to spend your money there. No one forces you. But you must pay your taxes or go to jail. Yet you can't ask the workers who take your taxes at gunpoint what they do all day long.

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