WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Key U.S. agencies, including the FBI, State Department and the Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with cost-cutting chief that federal workers explain what they accomplished last week 鈥� or risk losing their job.
The pushback from appointees of President Donald Trump marked a new level of chaos and confusion within the beleaguered federal workforce, just a month after Trump returned to the White House and quickly began fulfilling campaign promises to shrink the government.
Administration officials scrambled throughout the weekend to interpret Musk's unusual mandate, which apparently has Trump's backing despite some lawmakers arguing it is illegal. Unions want the administration to rescind the request and apologize to workers, and are threatening to sue.
Some officials are resisting. Others are encouraging their workers to comply. At some agencies, there was conflicting guidance.
One message on Sunday morning from the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instructed its roughly 80,000 employees to comply. That was shortly after the acting general counsel, Sean Keveney, had instructed some not to. And by Sunday evening, agency leadership issued new instructions that employees should 鈥減ause activities" related to the request until noon on Monday.
鈥淚鈥檒l be candid with you. Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration鈥檚 priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the below email,鈥� Keveney said in an email viewed by The Associated Press that acknowledged a broad sense of 鈥渦ncertainty and stress鈥� within the agency.
Keveney laid out security concerns and pointed out some of the work done by the agency鈥檚 employees may be protected by attorney-client privilege: 鈥淚 have received no assurances that there are appropriate protections in place to safeguard responses to this email.鈥�
Musk's team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the deadline 鈥� set in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST Monday 鈥� would lose their job.
Democrats and even some Republicans were critical of Musk's ultimatum, which came just hours after Trump encouraged him on social media to 鈥済et more aggressive鈥� in reducing the size of the government through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The day before, Musk celebrated his new position by during an appearance at a conservative conference.
Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, was among the members of Trump鈥檚 own party who had concerns. Utah has 33,000 federal employees.
鈥淚f I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it鈥檚 like, please put a dose of compassion in this,鈥� Curtis said. 鈥淭hese are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. ... It's a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.鈥�
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., questioned the legal basis the Trump administration would have for dismissing tens of thousands of workers for refusing to heed Musk鈥檚 latest demand, though the email did not include the threat about workers losing their jobs.
For Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., there was no doubt: 鈥淭he actions he鈥檚 taking are illegal, and we need to shut down this illegal operation."
Trump mocked the affected workers in a meme he posted Sunday on his social media network. The post featured a cartoon character writing a list of accomplishments from the previous week led by, 鈥淐ried about Trump,鈥� 鈥淐ried about Elon,鈥� 鈥淢ade it into the office for once,鈥� and 鈥淩ead some emails.鈥�
Newly confirmed , an outspoken Trump ally, instructed bureau employees to ignore Musk鈥檚 request, at least for now.
鈥淭he FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,鈥� Patel wrote in an email confirmed by the AP. 鈥淲hen and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.鈥�
, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, sent his staff a message Sunday that may cause more confusion. Martin noted that he responded to Musk's order.
鈥淟et me clarify: We will comply with this OPM request whether by replying or deciding not to reply,鈥� Martin wrote in the email obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management.
鈥淧lease make a good faith effort to reply and list your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I will, as I mentioned, have your back regarding any confusion,鈥� Martin continued. 鈥淲e can do this.鈥�
The night before, Martin had instructed staff to comply. 鈥淒OGE and Elon are doing great work. Historic. We are happy to participate,鈥� Martin wrote at that time.
Officials at the Departments of State and Defense were more consistent.
Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary of state for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers. 鈥淣o employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,鈥� Nagy wrote in an email.
Pentagon leadership instructed employees to 鈥減ause鈥� any response to Musk's team as well. 鈥淭he Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,鈥� according to an email from Jules Hurst, the deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. 鈥淲hen and if required, the Department will coordinate responses.鈥�
Everett Kelley, president of the 800,000-member American Federation of Government Employees, said in a letter Sunday to the administration that it should rescind Musk's original email request and apologize to all federal workers by the end of the day.
"We believe that employees have no obligation to respond to this plainly unlawful email absent other lawful direction,鈥� he wrote, describing Musk as 鈥渦nelected and unhinged.鈥�
Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce 鈥� either by being fired or through a "deferred resignation'' offer 鈥� during the first month of
There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside of Washington.
Musk on Sunday called his latest request 鈥渁 very basic pulse check.鈥�
鈥淭he reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!鈥� Musk wrote on X. 鈥淚n some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.鈥�
He has provided no evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have in recent days that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.
Meanwhile, thousands of other employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce this coming week, including and virtually the entire staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The Trump administration said Sunday that it is after a federal judge on Friday with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world.
Curtis and Van Hollen were on CBS' 鈥淔ace the Nation鈥� and Lawler appeared on ABC's "This Week."
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Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Byron Tau, Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Perrone and Tara Copp contributed to this report.
Steve Peoples, Eric Tucker And Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press
