The Trump administration’s new broadcast system hit an awkward glitch this week as thousands of employees received eyebrow-raising emails.
Federal employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reportedly received memos in their inboxes with the subject header, “Resign,” according to posts by journalist Ken Klippenstein.
The message in the email to all 13,000 NOAA staff read, “Aren’t you tired of working for a complete c*nt?”
All 13,000 federal employees of the NOAA just received the derogatory email below. “Goes to show you how fast this [new comms system] was cobbled together – no security or screening on this address,” one NOAA employee told me pic.twitter.com/2l1T798Wig
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 31, 2025
The system was evidently easy to exploit as Klippenstein tried an experiment himself.
“The Trump administration’s changes to their communications system made it so literally anyone can blast messages out to the entire agency,” he wrote on X.
I just sent this email to all 13,000 federal employees of the NOAA lol. The Trump administration’s changes to their communications system made it so literally anyone can blast messages out to the entire agency pic.twitter.com/GmT4W2bwpd
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 31, 2025
The Trump administration launched the new communications system as a way to reach all federal government employees from a single email address. However, employees have been reporting that they are getting spam and crude messages in their inboxes as posts on X have been reporting.
I can’t stop laughing @kenklippenstein 😭 https://t.co/qcZ2tt8RnG
— Jack Cocchiarella (@JDCocchiarella) January 31, 2025
Nope! Here from Fednews you can see Ken’s email in there lol pic.twitter.com/Qnf0DbqX6A
— Coastal Elite (@keatingsdaddy) January 31, 2025
“The Trump administration launched a new system that allows all 2.3 million federal employees to be emailed from a single address,” the Daily Mail reported.
“It was rolled out last week by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and has already been hit with a lawsuit brought by two federal employees alleging that the system raises security concerns,” the outlet added. “The complaint cites concerns about the possibility of it being hacked, and the privacy of workers.”
“Plugging in a new email server for the sole purpose of sending messages directly to every federal employee is an invitation to be hacked, and every employee out there needs to know how much of their data is at risk,” Kel McClanahan, the lawyer representing the federal employees, said in a statement.
McClanahan suggested that the system be shut down until the Office of Personnel Management “treats this data with the security it warrants.”