Washington: Several U.S. government agencies have advised employees not to immediately comply with a directive from President Donald Trump’s adviser, Elon Musk, demanding a summary of their weekly accomplishments or risk termination. The move comes as Musk, spearheading efforts to overhaul the federal workforce, pushes an aggressive downsizing agenda.
Officials appointed by the Trump administration at the FBI and State Department sent internal communications instructing employees to refrain from responding outside their official reporting channels. The directive signals growing tensions between Republican-led restructuring efforts and resistance within the federal government.
“The FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all our review processes,” wrote FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee, in an email obtained by Reuters.
Federal Workforce Restructuring Underway
Musk, leading the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has already overseen the dismissal of over 20,000 federal employees, with an additional 75,000 offered buyouts. The layoffs span multiple departments, including the Defense Department—long a Republican target for cost-cutting—and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where all employees have been ordered to cease operations entirely.
The rapid reduction in workforce has led to unintended consequences, including emergency rehiring of personnel in critical sectors such as nuclear security and pandemic response. The worsening bird flu outbreak, which has driven up egg prices, is among the crises requiring immediate attention from affected agencies.
While there is bipartisan support for federal reform amid a $36 trillion national debt, Musk’s unorthodox methods have sparked backlash, including from Republican voters in traditionally conservative areas.
Controversial Email Directive
Federal employees received an email on Saturday evening instructing them to submit a summary of their work by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday (0459 GMT Tuesday). The subject line, “What did you do last week?” appeared in a message from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) but did not explicitly reference Musk’s warning that noncompliance would be treated as a resignation.
Workers across multiple departments—including Defense, Homeland Security, Education, Commerce, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)—were instructed to await further guidance before responding, according to sources and internal emails reviewed by Reuters. Intelligence agency employees were also expected to receive similar instructions.
“To be clear—this is irregular, unexpected, and warrants further validation,” a senior executive at the National Centers for Environmental Information wrote in an internal email.
Mixed Reactions Among Officials
The response to Musk’s directive has been divided. Ed Martin, Trump’s interim nominee for U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., voiced support for the initiative in an email, praising Musk and DOGE’s efforts. However, multiple offices within the Justice Department, including those overseeing U.S. attorneys and the civil division, advised employees not to respond pending official clarification.
In contrast, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), another Justice Department agency, instructed its employees to comply, according to an email seen by Reuters.
Union Challenges Musk’s Authority
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal workers’ union, contested Musk’s authority to terminate employees who fail to respond. On Sunday, the union announced plans to formally request that OPM withdraw the directive while advising workers to consult their supervisors before taking action.
The uncertainty has exacerbated concerns among federal employees already facing weeks of job insecurity.
“I really wonder when someone is going to say, ‘Enough,'” an IRS employee told Reuters.
Spokespersons for multiple departments, including Commerce, Justice, Education, and Treasury, as well as the FDIC and NIH, declined to comment. An FBI representative also refused to comment, while a State Department spokesperson redirected inquiries to the White House.
Musk Defends the Email
This email is a very basic pulse check https://t.co/4qEKErwSuE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
Musk took to his social media platform, X, to defend the email, calling it “a very basic pulse check.” He also shared an AI-generated fictional list of responses, questioning why some government entities found the request unreasonable.
“EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH!! What is wrong with them??” Musk wrote.
This was made using @Grok.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
The standard @DOGE is asking for in a response is literally this low.
EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH!!
What is wrong with them?? https://t.co/5C620vfQ2Y
Political and Legal Pushback
Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah expressed support for reducing government spending but criticized Musk’s approach, calling for more compassion.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s, ‘Please put a dose of compassion in this,'” Curtis said on CBS News. “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. We can do both.”
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Even the judiciary was not spared, with federal court employees, including judges, receiving the same email from OPM despite the judiciary not being part of the executive branch. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts later advised recipients to ignore the directive.
Some employees, particularly in legal and financial roles, were left uncertain about how to comply, as their work often involves sensitive or classified information. Meanwhile, workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who had already been instructed to stop working earlier in the month, found themselves in an unusual predicament with little to report.
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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, condemned the directive as “a complete overstep” and predicted it would not withstand legal challenges.
“From a management perspective, you can see what a clown car this is right now,” Christie said on ABC News.
