Ahead of the Monday deadline, the Trump administration in the United States is reportedly backing off from Elon Musk’s weekend mandate for all government employees to submit five things they accomplished in the last week or face dismissal. President Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Musk on Saturday posted on his social media platform, X, that federal employees would receive an email asking them to justify their work last week and would be considered as having resigned if they did not reply by Monday at 11:59 pm Eastern time.
However, even before Musk’s deadline was up, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a federal agency that functions as the government’s HR department, told the chief human capital officers of federal agencies that employees wouldn’t be let go for not replying to Musk’s email, The Washington Post reported quoted sources privy to the matter.
Per the report, OPM wants employees of government departments to do weekly reporting. However, the agency remains unsure of what to do with the emails of employees who responded to Musk’s email so far and had “no plans” to analyze them.
‘Justify Your Work’ Mail
Soon after Elon Musk’s social media post about the diktat, an email went out to millions of people, including federal judges and workers in the legislative branch – prompting confusion as agency heads struggled to apply the guidance to their particular work.
Even before the latest directive, some agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headed by Kash Patel, told workers not to comply. Per the report, agencies feared that employees might, at OPM’s behest, disclose information that was sensitive or important to national security.
The administration’s surprising about-face reflected the degree of unease even among senior Trump officials about the scale and ambition of Musk’s effort to gut the federal government, which has already disrupted some functions. And while agency leaders were given discretion, some departments had not signalled that they were rejecting Musk’s mandate – leaving the door open for certain federal employees to be let go if they did not comply.
Divided House?
There is reportedly unease among agency leaders about Musk’s role within the government. The billionaire, who President Trump has roped in to lead his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has so far exerted significant power to slash the 2.3-million-person federal workforce.
“There’s a full revolt going on right now,” Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a centre-right think tank told The Washington Post.
“DOGE’s stated objective was to reorganize the agencies to meet their goals, but Cabinet heads want to run their own agencies, and they are objecting to the across-the-board cuts coming from Musk’s team,” he added.
President Donald Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, however, downplayed any perceived disconnect between his administration and Musk’s mandate and suggested that the only exceptions to the diktat were coming from agency heads who wanted to protect sensitive information, referring to the FBI and State Department.
“They don’t mean that in any way combatively, with Elon. They’re just saying there are some people that you don’t want to really have them tell you what they’re working on last week. Other than that, everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea,” Trump said.