Trump’s leaders at federal agencies rebuff Musk demand that workers justify their week or be fired
Even the people who President Trump has chosen to lead federal departments are resisting the directive that federal employees must share their work from last week, or face termination.
The leaders of the Pentagon, State Department, Office of National Intelligence, and FBI instructed their employees to ignore an edict issued by Elon Musk, Trump’s efficiency chief. A federal workers union vowed immediately to sue.
The FBI director Kash Patel was the one who led the refusal. He told bureau staff to ignore an request.
In a message sent to all employees, Mr. Patel said that the FBI personnel might have received an OPM email requesting information. Mr. Trump has ordered him to clean up. “The FBI is responsible for all our review processes and will carry out reviews according to FBI procedures. We will coordinate our responses if and when additional information is needed. Please pause your response for now.”
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Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DGE), issued an ultimatum to justify your job on Saturday. This was shortly after President Obama encouraged him be more “aggressive’ in his cost-cutting initiatives.
Musk told X that, “In accordance with President [Trump]’s instructions, federal employees will receive an email asking them to explain what they did last week.” Failure to respond will be interpreted as resignation.
The Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal employees with the subject “What did You Do Last Week?” shortly after Musk’s tweet.
In the email, employees were instructed to include “approx. The email asked employees to include “approx. Federal workers must respond by the end of Monday.
The email from OPM does not mention Mr. Musk’s threat of termination if he fails to comply.
Other agencies also refused to comply with the request after Mr. Patel.
Darin S. Selick, acting undersecretary of defense, posted a message to the Pentagon’s “X” page for workers who might have received the OPM Directive.
Mr. Selnick wrote: “The Department of Defense will review the performance of their personnel in accordance to its own procedures.” The Department will, if necessary, coordinate the Department’s response to the email that you received from O.P.M.
Tibor Nagy is the State Department’s acting Undersecretary for Management. In an email sent to employees, he said that leadership of the department would respond on behalf workers.
In an email, Mr. Nagy stated that “no employee is required to report their activity outside their Department’s chain of command.”
The New York Times reported Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabrield telling her employees that they “shouldn’t respond to the OPM e-mail.”
The American Federation of Government Employees (the union that represents federal workers) responded to Mr. Musk with a promise to take any “illegal terminations” to court.
Everett Kelley, AFGE president, said that it was cruel and disrespectful for veterans to have to defend their jobs to a billionaire out of touch, privileged and unelected who has not performed a single hour of honest service in his lifetime.
Capitol Hill Republicans questioned Mr. Musk’s move on Sunday, although some defended his questions as reasonable.
Rep. Michael Lawler of the New York Republican Party said, “I’m not sure how that is possible.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Republican, Alaska) said that Mr. Musk needs to learn more about the jobs that he wants to eliminate.
She said, “Our public workers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity for the unsung jobs they do,” on X. “It wasn’t the absurd weekend email that was used to justify their existence.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said that it was not unreasonable to ask federal workers to describe what they did in the last week.
Mr. Jordan stated, “If you’re a federal employee working remotely, you should know what these things are.” “I don’t think it’s a huge deal.”
Musk’s email is part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal workforce. The deferred resignation of federal employees that more than 77,000 employees accepted became an expansion of the culling of probationary employees — federal employees who are in their first or two years of employment across many federal agencies.
Musk wants to reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion.
This month, Mr. Trump signed a presidential order requiring federal agencies work with Mr. Musk to “prepare to initiate large scale reductions in forces.”
The Pentagon announced on Friday that it plans to lay off 5,400 employees.
Musk posted the message even though it’s unclear if he has the legal authority for widespread terminations of federal workers who do not meet the criteria in the email. He did so after President Obama praised his work and encouraged him to be “more assertive.”
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