US government departments have given conflicting instructions to staff regarding an email from Elon Musk, a Trump advisor, requesting details of their accomplishments from the past week. This public disagreement highlights tensions between Trump appointees and Mr. Musk, who leads an external effort to cut government spending.
The email, sent to millions of federal employees on Saturday evening, asked them to list their weekly achievements in five bullet points (excluding classified information) by Monday. This followed a post by Mr. Musk on X (formerly Twitter) stating that government staff would “shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week” and that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed the email’s authenticity.
However, the email itself did not mention any consequences for non-compliance. This discrepancy between Mr. Musk’s social media post and the official email has created confusion.
Several agencies, including the FBI and the State Department, advised their staff to delay responding until further guidance was provided. The FBI director told his staff to “pause any responses,” while the State Department emphasized that “no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.” The Justice Department initially informed staff that the email was likely legitimate but later clarified that employees should follow the instructions, warning against including sensitive information. Other departments, such as Defense, National Security, IRS, and NOAA, also requested staff to wait for further instructions.
The OPM has yet to clarify whether any staff are exempt from the request. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal employees, criticized the email as “cruel and disrespectful” and vowed to challenge any “unlawful terminations.” The impact on the estimated three million federal workers without email access this weekend is also unclear.
This incident comes after praise from the former President for Mr. Musk’s work. While some Republican members of Congress have defended Mr. Musk’s efforts, others, like Senator John Curtis, have criticized his methods, emphasizing the human impact of potential job losses.
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