Key U.S. agencies, including the FBI, State Department and the Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with cost-cutting chief Elon Musk’s demand that federal workers explain what they accomplished last week — or risk losing their jobs.
That resistance has intensified a pervasive sense of chaos and confusion, while highlighting a potential power struggle among President Donald Trump’s allies, that is affecting federal employees across the country as a new workweek is about to begin.
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 — set in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST Monday — would lose their job.
Democrats and even some Republicans were critical of Musk’s unusual directive, which came just hours after Trump encouraged him on social media to “get more aggressive” 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 waving a giant chainsaw during an appearance at a conservative conference.
Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, was among the members of Trump’s own party who had concerns. Utah has 33,000 federal employees.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this,” Curtis said. “These 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.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., also questioned the legal basis the Trump administration would have for dismissing tens of thousands of workers for refusing to heed Musk’s latest demand, though the email did not include the threat about workers losing their jobs.
Labor unions have threatened lawsuits, while several agency leaders, including Trump appointees, encouraged their workers not to cooperate.
Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, an outspoken Trump ally, instructed bureau employees to ignore Musk’s request, at least for now.
“The 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,” Patel wrote in an email confirmed by The Associated Press. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who has been nominated for the job by the Republican president, sent his staff a message Sunday that may cause more confusion. Martin noted that he himself responded to the request for last week’s accomplishments.
“Let me clarify: We will comply with this OPM request whether by replying or deciding not to reply,” Martin wrote in the email obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management
“Please 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,” Martin continued. “We can do this.”
The night before, Martin had instructed staff to comply with Musk’s order. “DOGE and Elon are doing great work. Historic. We are happy to participate,” Martin wrote at that time.
Officials at the Departments of State and Defense, both led by recently confirmed Trump nominees, were more direct.
Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers.
“No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” Nagy wrote, according to an email obtained by the AP.
Pentagon leadership instructed employees to “pause” any response to Musk’s team as well.
“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” according to anads an email from Jules Hurst, the deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses…”
Trump appears undeterred.
The president posted a meme on his social media network mocking federal employees. The Sunday post featured a cartoon character writing a list of accomplishments from the previous week led by, “Cried about Trump,” “Cried about Elon,” “Made it into the office for once,” and “Read some emails.”
Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce — either by being fired or through a “deferred resignation” offer — during the first month of Trump’s second term as the White House and DOGE dismiss new and career workers and tell agency leaders to plan for “large-scale reductions in force.”
There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but the AP has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside of Washington, and the cuts include thousands at the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services, as well as the IRS and the National Park Service, among others.
Musk on Sunday called his latest request “a very basic pulse check.”
“The 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!” Musk wrote on X. “In 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.”
He has provided no evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have falsely claimed 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 probationary civilian workers at the Pentagon and contractors at the U.S. Agency for International Development who received no-name form letters of termination over the weekend.
The USAID move escalates a monthlong administration assault on the international humanitarian agency that has frozen its funding, closed its Washington headquarters and shut down thousands of U.S. aid and development programs worldwide.
A judge who temporarily blocked the freeze on foreign assistance said the administration had kept withholding the aid and must at least temporarily restore the funding to programs worldwide. But another judge cleared the way for the administration to move forward with pulling thousands of USAID staffers off the job.
The blanket nature of the notification letters to USAID contractors, excluding the names or positions of those receiving it, could make it difficult for the dismissed workers to get unemployment benefits, workers noted.
Democrats accused the Republican president of sowing chaos to distract Americans from his failure to address their economic concerns and lower inflation.
“You’ve got Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to the federal government and important services, and there’s no Article 4 in the Constitution that gives Elon Musk that authority,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
He said Musk’s actions are illegal and “we need to shut down this illegal operation.”